Strike in Kashmir over shrine land, Indian premier calls meeting

Srinagar/New Delhi - There was a total shutdown Thursday in Muslim-majority-areas of northern Jammu and Kashmir state over a land row, as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called a meeting of all political parties in Delhi in a bid to defuse tensions. Jammu and Kashmir has been on the boil since the state government first gave an order on May 26 allotting 40 hectares of forest land to a trust that organizes the annual pilgrimage to the Amarnath cave, a holy Hindu shrine, and then cancelled it on July 1. While political parties in the Muslim-dominated Kashmir valley protested the allotment, the cancellation led to violent demonstrations led by the Hindu right-wing groups in the southern Jammu region, the only part of Kashmir to have a large Hindu population. All shops, offices, schools and colleges remained closed in state capital... [read full story]