JAMMU, India, July 2 (Reuters) - Authorities in Indian Kashmir imposed an indefinite curfew in its winter capital city of Jammu on Wednesday, following violent clashes over transfer of forest land to a Hindu shrine. Hindus in Jammu, where they are a majority, have been protesting against the government for backing down from a decision to transfer forest land to a Hindu shrine trust in the Muslim-majority part of Kashmir. India's main opposition, the Hindu Nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has also called a nationwide strike on Thursday to protest against the decision. "It will be a complete shutdown tomorrow as the decision by the government is completely unacceptable," Balasubramanium, a BJP spokesman, said in New Delhi. At least 80 people, including 25 police, have been injured in clashes between Hindu protesters and police in the last three days in the Jammu region, said K. Rajendra, a senior police officer. On Wednesday, 10 Hindu protesters were injured when a grenade exploded near them during a protest rally in Doda district of Indian Kashmir, officials said. In Jammu, people stayed indoors as policemen guarded deserted streets and asked people not to venture onto them. "After assessing the situation, we have decided to clamp indefinite curfew in and around Jammu city from early this morning," a police spokesman said. Earlier Muslim protesters in and around Srinagar, the Muslim-majority summer capital of Kashir, shut down much of the region over last week in one of the biggest protests in decades. At least five people were shot dead by police during the demonstrations against the government decision to hand over nearly 100 acres (40 hectares) of forest to a shrine trust for building temporary shelter for Hindu pilgrims. (Reporting by Ashok Pahalwan, Editing by Bappa Majumdar and Jerry Norton) (For the latest Reuters news on India see: http://in.reuters.com, for blogs see http://blogs.reuters.com/in/.)
Kashmiri people hold torches to celebrate the revocation of a government order to transfer land to a Hindu shrine trust in Srinagar July 1, 2008. India placed several top Kashmiri separatist ...
