SRINAGAR, India, May 8 (Reuters) - At least 30 people were injured when Indian police in Kashmir's main city fired teargas shells on Friday to disperse thousands of Muslims protesting the general election, police said. More than 6,000 protesters, many of them masked and led by senior separatist leader and chief cleric, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, marched through downtown Srinagar, Kashmir's summer capital, and threw stones at the police, said police officer Mohammed Shafi. "No election no selection, we want freedom," and "Indian troops go back," the protesters chanted, a day after Kashmir voted in the penultimate stage of the month-long election. Turnout in the Kashmir valley, flashpoint of a two-decade-long insurgency, was as low as 19 percent on Thursday after anti-India separatists called for a poll boycott. The separatists, most of whom were placed under house arrest for more than a week, called the low voter turnout a success. "Boycott is a democratic verdict. People have rejected the 62-year-old repression by India," said Syed Ali Shah, senior hard line separatist leader, at Friday prayers at a Srinagar mosque. Aside from the ruling Congress party, other parties contesting the polls include the main opposition Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, the regional National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party. The Muslim-majority region last year witnessed some of the biggest pro-independence protests since the separatist revolt against Indian rule erupted, but those protests tapered off and a state election was held peacefully in December. Violence involving security forces and Muslim militants has declined significantly after India and Pakistan, who claim the region in full but rule in parts, started a slow moving peace process in 2004. More than 47,000 people have been killed in the region since the revolt broke out in 1989. Separatists put the toll at 100,000. (Reporting By Sheikh Mushtaq; Editing by Rina Chandran)
Senior separatist leader and chief cleric, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq (L, wearing a cap and atop a vehicle) leads an anti-election protest in Srinagar May 8, 2009. At least 30 people were ...
