At least four Kashmiri separatist leaders were arrested Saturday as much of the disputed state observed a strike to protest the arrival of Indian troops 54 years ago.
Separatist leaders Javed Mir and Shahid-ul-Islam were arrested at their Srinagar homes Saturday morning and taken to the Kothi Bagh police station, police said.
Other leading separatists, including Abdul Gani Lone and Shabir Shah, were placed under house arrest. Police were also deployed around the offices of the All Party Hurriyat Conference, the leading separatist alliance, and Shah's Democratic Freedom Party.
The arrests appeared an attempt to prevent the separatists from leading demonstrations on what anti-Indian Kashmiris mark as "Black Day."
Three grenade explosions by suspected separatist militants were reported in Srinagar, Kashmir's Muslim-majority summer capital, including one in the Karannagar area that injured six civilians.
Another grenade blast left three members of India's Border Security Force wounded, while militants also hurled a rifle grenade at a security camp which missed the target and damaged a nearby bank, police said.
Almost all shops were shut in Srinagar and many other Kashmiri towns to mark the first deployment of Indian troops to the Himalayan territory.
Indian forces arrived on October 27, 1947 after Kashmir's Hindu ruler requested their help to fend off an invasion by Pakistani tribesmen.
"On this day Indian occupation forces set foot on this land against the wishes of its people and are continuing their illegal occupation till date by dent of force," said a statement by the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front.
A Muslim separatist insurgency that broke out in 1989 has claimed at least 35,000 lives in Kashmir -- India, (AFP)
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