Indian denial

India rejects UN Kashmir comment
Indian Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers stand alert as they enforce curfew restrictions in Srinagar on 24 August, 2008
Authorities are struggling to quell the protests by Muslims and Hindus

India has dismissed United Nations' comments on the recent violent clashes in Indian-administered Kashmir as "unwarranted" and "irresponsible".

A foreign ministry spokesman said India did not require any advice on the protection and promotion of human rights of its citizens.

The UN has called for an inquiry into the killings of civilians protesters.

India troops have killed nearly 40 protesters since June, most of them in the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley.

The protests were triggered by the allocation of land to a Hindu trust.

They have developed into the most serious protests in Indian-administered Kashmir in years.

'Victim of violence'

"We regret that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has issued a statement on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir. This is uncalled for and irresponsible," spokesman for the External Affairs Ministry Navtej Sarna said.

The UN should be aware that Jammu and Kashmir has been a "victim of terrorist violence" for almost two decades and all through this period, the authorities have acted within the law and with restraint, he said.

"Terrorist groups have targeted innocent civilians. They have not refrained from taking women and children as hostages as in the recent incident in Jammu," Mr Sarna said.

"In all their actions against terrorists, personnel of the security forces have sought to ensure that no innocent lives are lost and, for this objective, have on many occasions laid down their lives," he added.

On Wednesday, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a statement in Switzerland "calling on the Indian authorities and in particular security forces to respect the right to freedom of assembly and expression, and comply with international human rights principles in controlling the demonstrators".

"The use of force should be proportionate to the threat posed and firearms must only be used in dispersing a violent assembly to protect individuals against an imminent threat of death or serious injury," it said.

Massive protests

The United Nations called for a thorough and independent investigation into the killings.

It has also called on demonstrators "to protest using peaceful means only".

Indian-administered Kashmir has been hit by protests since June, after the government there granted land to a Hindu group that manages pilgrimage to a sacred Hindu shrine.

The move unleashed anger among Kashmir Muslims and has seen a re-emergence of mass demonstrations calling for independence from India.

The land transfer was subsequently abandoned, and that resulted in Hindus concentrated in the Jammu region of the state taking to the streets.

The Indian security forces have been heavily criticised for their handling of the protests and local people say many innocent people have been shot dead.

Many parts of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir are still under a curfew imposed last weekend.

A number of separatist leaders were placed under arrest ahead of a major rally called by separatists in Srinagar last Monday.

Shocked

first of all happy independence day to all....but r we independent yet? no we never have been....first we made pakistan uselessly by politics in the name of islam there by making riots and killing lot of innocent people behaving like uncivilised people and moreover our country is not islamic at all in any sense (e.g there is no islamic shariah in the country) even though the name ''pakistan''....we stupidly followed a leader who was not muslim in any sense (used to drink, smoke, didn't know how to pray, danced and married a non-muslim who didn't become muslim and so on etc etc)..we call him kaiday-aazam but he should be called baykaiday-azaam...and look at the condition of our country...i feel like we are in garbage and we have already made pakistan a big garbage...and now we want to take kashmir and make it super garbage...atleast the condition of kashmir is much much better than pakistan..we can't handle so small country pakistan and we also want kashmir?..forget it guys first we need to improve oursleves...we are fighting with eachother like uncivilised barbarians....we oursleves are not living peacefully and we are not letting others to live peacefully....prophet always said first improve urselves before pointing at others....its extremely sad that we do everything opposite to islam...shame on all of us...even though we know the condition we are not trying to improve it...we all are not original at all...we don't follow islam yes but we know how to follow bollywood..moreover its so shameful that the celebrities of pakistan (such as male and female actors of every field, singers and cricketers etc) are going shamelessly to india like beggars to earn over there and to settle over there peacefully and we already know the answer that the reason why they are doing that becoz they earn more there and the life is much much better there compared to our lives here...we all are responsible for this...shame on us..all the things we do is indian so we should talk how to clean pakistan rather than talking about taking kashmir....the women of pakistan do so much horrible makeup than other women which is haram...prophet said get knowledge and educate urslef but we only know how to become a lawyer becoz baykaiday-aazam was a lawyer..how stupid thinking it is...how many of pakistanis are in NASA and how many of them are excelling in the other super fields besides becoming a lawyer....there is a lot more to tell bad about (the list is endless) but we all know about it...look into ur hearts and we should start cleaning it from now...may allah help us.now guys we should keep our lips shut by keeping complete silence and not reacting to anything at all..we should start improving ourselves by cleaning pakistan becoz it will be the best way to do jihad for ourselves.its so disappointing to live in this condition..lets not loose hope and say pakistan zindabad