Baku-APA. Amid heightened security and separatist shutdown, Zubin Mehta, the international icon of classical music, conducted a concert in Indian-controlled Kashmir Saturday evening, APA reports quoting Xinhua.
The Indian-born musical maestro of Western classical music staged the Kashmir Concert - the Feelings for Kashmir at Shalimar Bagh, the famous garden built by Mughal emperor on the banks of Dal Lake in Srinagar, the summer capital of the restive region.
"I have waited for this moment for a long time. There are those we have hurt inadvertently. I promise next time we shall do this with everyone in a stadium where everyone can come, so it won 't be a select few," said 77-year-old Mehta before his performance.
The Bavarian State Orchestra from Munich played music alongside Kashmiri musicians during initial segment of concert.
The Kashmir Concert was organized by the German Embassy in New Delhi with support from the local and federal Indian government.
Officials said 1,500 guests from Kashmir and beyond including diplomats, Indian film stars and government ministers and officials gathered at the garden to listen to the timeless music of Beethoven, Haydn and Tchaikovsky played by Mehta's 150-strong Bavarian State Orchestra.
After 90-minute performance the enthusiastic audience paid a standing ovation for Mehta and his orchestra.
At the end of concert Mehta's orchestra joined musical notes with Kashmiri musicians.
The model-turned-Bollywood actress Gul Panag anchored the concert which was being televised live across India. German Ambassador to India Michael Steiner and Indian-controlled Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah also made a brief address before the concert.
Around 10 km away, a parallel concert called the reality to Kashmir was staged by rights activists. The open to all concert highlighted rights violations in the region, which its organizers said government-backed concert was trying to overshadow. Moderate separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq visited the parallel concert.
Kashmir, the Himalayan region divided between India and Pakistan, is claimed by both in full. Since their independence from British in 1947, the two countries have fought three wars, two exclusively over Kashmir. A guerrilla war has been fought by militants against Indian rule in Indian-controlled Kashmir since 1989.
Meanwhile, two violent incidents occurred in south of Srinagar hours before the high-profile concert. Four people were killed and another wounded after India's paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) fired at them in Gagran village of Shopian district, about 50 km from Srinagar. Officials said they were militants, while locals maintained they were civilians killed by CRPF without provocation. Police fired tear gas to disperse angry protesters, who tried to storm police station and deputy commissioner's office, reports said.
Authorities rushed additional companies of CRPF to the town of Shopian to contain the worsening situation.
At least nine people including five policemen and two CRPF personnel were wounded after suspected militants hurled a grenade on police contingent at Pulwama town, around 35 km from Srinagar.
Life across Muslim dominated areas of India-controlled Kashmir came to a standstill with shops, banks, schools and most government offices being closed in response to call from a separatist alliance opposing the Kashmire Concert in what they say is a "disputed territory".
Separatists in Indian-controlled Kashmir have been demanding end to New Delhi's rule in the region.
The authorities had taken adequate security measures for the concert and deployed 12 companies of CRPF in and around the venue.
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