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Srinagar: Hundreds of protesters clashed with police on Thursday in Indian Kashmir, demanding an investigation into the recent discovery of more than 900 unmarked graves as India's prime minister visited the troubled territory.
At least ten policemen were injured - three critically - as protesters threw rocks, said local police officer Pervez Ahmad. It was not immediately known if any protesters were hurt.
Police fired tear gas and used bamboo batons to disperse the protesters, Ahmad said.
Human rights
Mirwaiz Omer Farooq, the chief Muslim cleric and chairman of the main separatist alliance in the Indian-controlled section of divided Kashmir, led a vehicle convoy of nearly 2,000 protesters to hand over a petition to the UN office in the territory's main city, Srinagar. The petition called for an investigation into alleged human rights violations by Indian authorities amid the territory's separatist conflict.
During a sermon he preached at a mosque before the protest yesterday, Farooq demanded an investigation into the unmarked graves, believed to be those of people killed by India's security forces during the territory's nearly two-decade uprising against Indian rule.
Farooq was detained at a police station later yesterday, another police officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to media.
About a dozen militant groups have been fighting since 1989 for Muslim-majority Kashmir's independence from mostly Hindu India or a union with predominantly Muslim Pakistan. The territory is divided between India and Pakistan, which both claim it all and fought two wars over it.
Four senior leaders of Indian Kashmir's main separatist alliance were placed under house arrest hours before yesterday's protests, said police officer Shabir Ahmad.
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