Kashmir peace plea from the Church of North India: The Church of England Newspaper, July 9, 2010 p 6. July 15, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of North India, Terrorism.trackback
Bishop Pradeep Kumar Samantaroy of Amritsar
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Bishop in Amritsar has written to supporters in the West urging prayer for the people of Kashmir following weeks of anti-government rioting that have left over a dozen dead.
Bishop Pradeep Kumar Samantaroy writes that the situation in the disputed Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir is grim.
A spokesman for the diocese’s John Bishop Memorial Hospital in Anantnag, the state’s second largest city, reports “the whole of Kashmir is burning. On 29th June two people were killed and two shops, buses, petrol stations were burnt. The situation here has become very serious. Non Kashmiri people have started leaving the valley.”
In Anantnag, hundreds of Muslims defied a police curfew to protest Indian rule over the disputed state, while in Srinagar a dusk to dawn curfew is being enforced by paramilitary police. A general strike has been called by Muslim separatists, closing shops and businesses across the Kashmir valley.
The state’s chief minister Omar Abdullah on June 25 urged calm. “We must work together to find a solution which can lead to lasting peace in Kashmir as per the aspirations of the people.”
At Independence in 1947 the majority Muslim state’s ruler opted to join India, prompting an invasion by Pakistani backed Pathan tribesmen. The ensuing war left the state divided, with the sparsely populated north and west in Pakistani hands, the northeast under Chinese control and the Kashmir valley and neighboring Ladakh under Indian suzerainty . Tens of thousands of Kashmiris have died in the decades old insurgency that has led to two wars between India and Pakistan.
The tempo of protests and violence has increased in recent weeks, the diocese reports. Indian government officials have blamed Pakistan for the unrest, saying its government is supporting the rebels’ bid to destabilize the state.
The valley’s minority Christians have come under the crossfire of both Muslim and Hindu extremists. “Please pray that people, the mob should not turn against us or against our hospital,” the diocese writes.
