The chief minister of held Kashmir flew to the capital on Monday calling for urgent reinforcements to end the worst anti-government violence in two years in which more than 30 people have died.
At least four people were killed and 50 wounded on Monday in clashes with police in different areas of the Himalayan region after protesters set fire to a police station, pelted occupation forces with stones and damaged a railway station, witnesses said.
Omar Abdullah, the chief minister of held Jammu and Kashmir state, met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram in New Delhi. "Tragically, we have locked ourselves into a cycle of violence where protests lead to death leading to further protests, leading to further casualties," he told a news conference. "This cycle of violence must end."
Abdullah said he needed more paramilitary and rapid action forces to quell the protests and ensure a curfew, defied by thousands on Monday, was enforced. "To stop the system of lawlessness, and to allow the government to take the necessary steps to bring normalcy, curfew, when announced, will have to be implemented swiftly. There will be no other way around this."
Abdullah said the authorities had tried to involve the separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference alliance in dialogue but said a return to some normalcy was needed for any real progress. The biggest anti-India demonstrations in the last two years across held Kashmir started on June 11 when a 17-year-old student died after being hit by a tear gas shell fired by police during protests in occupied Srinagar. "I don't believe that there is one particular group or individual that can direct what is happening in the valley," Abdullah said. "There are a number of elements that are fishing in troubled waters.
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