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Indian Kashmir protests death sentence for Delhi bombers

23 April 2010 21:32 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Police fired tear-gas at hundreds of demonstrators in Indian Kashmir on Friday during a strike to protest the death sentences handed to three militants who bombed a New Delhi market in 1996, APA reports quoting AFP.
The three members of a Kashmiri group called the Islamic Front -- two Kashmiris and a Muslim resident of New Delhi -- were sentenced to death Thursday by a court in the Indian capital.
Chanting "We want freedom" and "Reverse the order" hundreds of Muslims led by senior separatist Yasin Malik took to the streets in the Kashmiri summer capital Srinagar to show their anger at the court orders.
Police fired tear-gas and swung their batons to disperse the protesters, who threw bricks in return.
Malik and nearly dozen others were detained and swiftly shifted to a neighbouring police station.
"We demand abolition of capital punishment in India," Malik told his supporters at the start of the march.
Police said they foiled more marches in other Muslim-dominated towns of Anantnag in the south and Baramulla and Sopore in the north.
The protests came as a one-day strike called by separatists to protest against the sentencing brought Indian Kashmir to a standstill.
On April 13, one person was killed and 24 hurt during another strike called in protest against convictions for the 1996 bombings, which killed 13 people and injured dozens in New Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar shopping area.
Anti-India insurgents have waged a two-decade fight against New Delhi’s rule in the Himalayan region that has left more than 47,000 people dead, according to the official count.
New Delhi police tightened security Thursday around tourist hotspots and markets after the United States warned that it had "specific" information about possible attacks on foreigners.