Strike, violence greet Manmohan in Kashmir

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (L) and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad are pictured at the roundtable conference with regional politicians in the capital Srinagar yesterday. A general strike, boycott and more violence greeted Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as he arrived in Kashmir but he defended two days of peace talks here as a "serious initiative". PHOTO: AFP

Police said at least three civilians and two paramilitary troopers were wounded when a grenade was thrown in a residential area of Srinagar where the peace talks were scheduled for later in the day.

The streets of the state summer capital were deserted after hardline separatists called the strike which closed shops, businesses, schools and banks.

Troops arrested separatist leaders Sayeed Ali Geelani and Javed Mir to foil street protests and barricaded intersections amid fears of further attacks by Kashmiri rebels who have vowed to disrupt the premier's roundtable, a police spokesman said.

Even the main moderate separatist alliance declared a boycott of the talks as did India's leading opposition, the nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.

With the federal government presenting the roundtable as an essential plank in the search for peace in Kashmir, Singh's spokesman defended the move.

"This is a serious, well thought-out initiative to try and get to a meeting ground and this is not drama or a public spectacle," Sanjaya Baru told reporters.

"This is an ongoing process and not just a one-time affair," he said, adding the roundtable aimed at offering an opportunity to disparate separatist and political groups of Kashmir to come up with their own peace proposals.

The talks were to begin in the afternoon and continue Thursday, but the boycott by moderate separatists and violence by Islamic hardliners cast a shadow over the effort to halt the uprising that has claimed more than 44,000 lives since 1989.

The talks come amid a peace process initiated in January 2004 between South Asian nuclear rivals India and Pakistan, whose troops have faced off across a ceasefire line in Kashmir since 1948.

Militants opposed to peace talks with India stepped up their violent campaign in the build-up to Singh's visit, killing seven people and wounding 22 in an attack on a political rally in Srinagar on Sunday.

A suicide bomber then blew himself up and wounded more than two dozen soldiers Tuesday when he rammed a car filled with explosives into a military bus near Srinagar airport.

The Hurriyat Conference, an umbrella of moderate separatist groups that met Singh last month to discuss the possible release of political prisoners, has labelled the Srinagar event a "futile exercise."

Kashmir's main opposition National Conference party also threatened to boycott the talks but Hindus in the Muslim-majority state said they would participate.