Pakistani Kashmiris protest 'Indian violence'

Since then about 50 people have been killed in the Indian-held zone of the Muslim-majority region where security forces have regularly opened fire in recent weeks to control angry separatist demonstrations.

 

"If atrocities continue in Indian occupied Kashmir, we will cross the Line of Control to help our brethren," Aziz Ahmed Ghazali, a refugee leader told the rally attended by more than 300 people.

 

The protesters marched to the UN military observers office in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir, and sat on the road, shouting "Indian dog go back," "UN oh UN play your role" and "We want freedom."

 

Ghazali accused the United Nations of taking no action on past resolutions protesting against Indian "atrocities" in Kashmir.

 

"The UN has become a dead horse and a maid of the United States," he said.

 

Abu Ali, a leader in Pakistan's banned charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa, said they would stand by Kashmiri people in their struggle for independence.

 

Jamaat-ud-Dawa is linked to the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which left 166 people dead and was blamed by New Delhi on Pakistani militants. The carnage derailed a slow-moving peace process between India and Pakistan.

 

"Unarmed Kashmiris are being killed in Kashmir, while our rulers are on foreign visits," Ali said, referring to the controversial visit of President Asif Ali Zardari to Britain and France despite massive floods in Pakistan.

 

Muslim separatists have fought a 20-year insurgency against New Delhi's rule in Indian Kashmir.

 

The mountainous region is held in part by Pakistan and India, but claimed in full by both, and has been the cause of two of the three wars the countries have fought since independence from Britain more than half a century ago.

 

India's home minister P. Chidambaram suggested Friday that Pakistan was behind the wave of unrest in Kashmir.