Indian police Friday arrested a hardline separatist leader in Kashmir and clashed with Muslims protesting the alleged burning of the Koran by Hindu radicals.
Syed Ali Shah Geelani was arrested outside his residence when he tried to break through a cordon of police who had been keeping him under house arrest.
Geelani, leader of the pro-Pakistan Jamat-i-Islami group, had called on Muslims to protest the alleged desecration of the Muslim holy book, the Koran. The call was supported by a large number of political, student and religious organizations.
Shops and business establishments downed shutters, while offices, banks, and educational institutions were also closed. There was hardly any traffic on the roads, witnesses said.
The police also arrested five or six other separatist leaders in Kashmir ahead of Friday prayers when they tried to lead a protest march against the alleged Koran burning in New Delhi on March 5.
Clusters of people pelted stones at policemen in the downtown Maisuma locality of Srinagar, the state's summer capital.
Angry youths burnt an Indian flag as they chanted anti-government slogans. The police, wielding sticks and in combat gear, had to fire teargas shells to disperse the slogan-shouting crowds.
According to a police spokesman, suspected militants took advantage of the confusion and fired at a police party.
Troops patrolled all the streets outside trouble-prone residential areas of Srinagar in anticipation of violent demonstrations after Friday prayers ended.
Geelani, who calls the armed rebellion in Kashmir a religious movement, had appealed to Muslims all over India to hold protests over the alleged desecration.
Copies of a photo allegedly showing the burning of the Koran were distributed earlier this month in every mosque in Kashmir.
The All Party Hurriyat Conference, an umbrella group of separatist Kashmiri political parties, had also urged Muslim clerics in the Kashmir valley to condemn the desecration -- SRINAGAR, India (AFP)
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