Strike in Kashmir over arrests of women separatists
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-09-08 19:04

Shops, schools and businesses were closed on Thursday in Kashmir's main city Srinagar in response to a strike call to protest against the arrest of women separatists.

The strike left streets largely deserted barring armoured security vehicles and police foot patrols.

The shutdown came as Muslim militants and troops exchanged fire near a heavily guarded building in Srinagar housing the offices of the chief minister of Kashmir.

Police said two militants and two policemen were killed in the gunbattle which began on Wednesday. Three other policemen were wounded in the firefight, which ended on Thursday after the second militant was killed.

Violence and protests have continued in Kashmir despite an ongoing peace process between India and Pakistan, which have fought two wars over the Himalayan territory.

Thursday's strike was in protest against the arrest of Asiya Andrabi, the chief of Dukhtaran-e-Milat (Daughters of the Muslim Faith), who was arrested last week for raiding hotels, restaurants and wine shops to stamp out the "flesh trade" and check what the group called the "moral decline" in the Muslim-majority region.

On Tuesday, authorities charged Andrabi, who wears a head-to-toe black veil, and seven followers under a tough public safety law, drawing condemnation from Kashmiri separatist groups.

Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the chief of the hardline faction of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, an alliance of separatist political parties, called the strike.

"The detention of Asiya Andrabi and her activists is a heinous crime, a shameful act. Their crime is that they raised a voice against evils in society," Geelani said in a statement.

More than 45,000 people have been killed since the revolt in Jammu and Kashmir, mainly Hindu India's only Muslim-majority state, started in 1989. India says Pakistan aids Muslim militants in the region, a charge Islamabad denies.

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