Kashmir on Strike to Protest India Plan for Hindu Townships

Kashmiris have shuttered shops and businesses in the disputed Himalayan region to protest India’s plan to build townships for Hindus who fled a rebellion in Muslim-majority areas.

The Kashmiri separatists who called Saturday’s strike say the plan to house nearly 200,000 Hindus in new townships is part of a conspiracy to separate the region’s population along religious lines.

Many of the Hindus, known as Pandits, had fled to Hindu-dominated areas in Jammu region or elsewhere in India in 1990.

Clashes on Friday between anti-India protesters and government forces left at least 20 people injured, including a photojournalist and eight policemen, in Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar.