India scuttles protests with lockdown in Kashmir

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — It's a perplexing strategy. Every week anti-India separatists in restive Kashmir release a detailed calendar of their upcoming protests that essentially dares the security forces to stop them.

And they almost always do.

Last week, when the separatists called for supporters to strike and hold protests throughout the day — and open for business at night — Indian authorities hit back by imposing a round-the-clock curfew and called out the military for crowd control.

Protest leaders say even though telegraphing their intentions gives authorities a chance to quash their plans, it is worth it because it instigates the authorities to hit back with a heavy hand, further delegitimizing Indian rule in the eyes of Kashmiris.

At least 107 people, mostly teenage boys and young men in their 20s, have died in the crackdown on the often-violent demonstrations since June, with every death stoking public anger and more protests.

The demonstration schedules are part of a "Quit Kashmir" campaign that started in June aimed at winning independence from Hindu-dominated India or a merger with mostly Muslim Pakistan.

"The resistance calendars are our means of expression to seek India's clear acknowledgment of what we want, and simultaneously challenge the silence of the international community," said Syed Ali Shah Geelani, one of the separatist leaders spearheading the ongoing protests.

Since 1989, an armed uprising and the ensuing crackdown by Indian security forces have killed an estimated 68,000 people in the Himalayan region, divided between India and Pakistan but claimed by both in its entirety. While that rebellion has been largely suppressed, public opposition to Indian rule remains deep and the resistance is now principally through street demonstrations.

Indian officials have repeatedly said the protests are orchestrated by the separatist leaders to disrupt normal life in Kashmir.

"Their sole objective is to make the government defunct and run a parallel system as part of a nefarious design. But our legal system has many provisions to deal with it, and we'll not let them have their way," said Taj Mohi-u-Din, an influential Cabinet minister in the state government.

The separatists, who say they are only channeling the public mistrust of Indian rule, amended their program Thursday, ending their call for daytime strikes for four days to allow normal life to briefly return to the region. However, the government has continued with its massive security lockdown, which has greatly curtailed the protests.

Analysts say releasing the protest schedule shows the government the separatists are not cowed and intend to push ahead with their fight.

"The continued racheting up of the methods and intensity of the protests means that in supporting the calendars people are trying to force a meaningful dialogue, not a dialogue defined by New Delhi," said Prof. Siddiq Wahid, head of the Islamic University of Science and Technology in Kashmir.

However, security officials, buoyed by the recent curfew-enforced calm, have begun to reach out to Kashmiris locked in their homes and desperately looking for ways to meet their emergency needs.

Police stations have been directed to ensure "essential medicines and commodities are made available" to public, according to a police statement. Police have set up special help-line numbers and are allowing limited movement of people for marriages scheduled during the curfews, and started running public distributions of grain and cooking gas.

"Come what may, we'll not allow the separatist policy of paralyzing the government and demoralizing security forces to work anymore," said a senior police officer who spoke on condition on anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the security strategy with the media.

"People will finally understand that it is the state that caters to their needs, not the separatists," he said.

With their backs to the wall, the conflict-weary residents may soon be forced to seek assistance from the troops they openly resent and fight on the streets.

"They're creating a situation for us where we've to choose between our fight for freedom and dependence on police for daily survival," said Bilal Ahmed, a Srinagar resident. "This dilemma makes life much tougher."