Kashmir's "children of conflict" rise in anger

By Alistair Scrutton

SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) - The protesters organize with Facebook, YouTube as well as via messages from local mosques. They eschew violence, but are seething with anger.

They are Indian Kashmir's new generation of radicalized separatists who are proving a huge challenge to New Delhi by spurring the biggest demonstrations against India in two decades.

"The older generation is tired." said Zaffar, a 23 year-old student in Srinagar, Kashmir's summer capital, in a street under curfew where dozens of heavily armed police patrolled. "Our generation has understood what the problem is."

Zaffar was surrounded by similar youths, each recounting a police beating or an abuse at the hands of troops. With text messages blocked by the government and many mobiles mysteriously cut, they often relied on the Internet to communicate.

Protests by hundreds of thousands of Kashmiris in the last month highlight how a younger generation who know little but war are taking the lead and radicalizing a separatist movement that had tentatively talked peace with New Delhi.

In at least two incidents, protesters marched to separatist politicians' homes demanding they lead them in marches.

This anger may prove a setback for any negotiated solution to a conflict that has already sparked two wars between India and Pakistan, which rule in parts but claim the region in full.

For nearly two decades, politics in Kashmir often appeared to be about residents being caught in crossfire between militants and troops, or about a wider issue of Pakistan-India relations.

Many people kept their heads down in a conflict where at least 43,000 lives were lost. Sporadic protests were quickly squashed in one of the most militarized places on earth.

Then a row over land for Hindu pilgrims suddenly snowballed into protests by hundreds of thousands of people that reminded old-timers of the start of a revolt against Indian rule in 1989.

Police reacted, killing at least 35 protesters in the Muslim Kashmir Valley. At least a thousand people have been wounded. The government says police were fired upon. They say agitators hijacked protests and that ordinary Kashmiris were marginalized.

But for many Kashmiris, the crackdown was a travesty. With local militants declaring a ceasefire to support the protests and editorials in India mulling secession, separatist hopes peaked.

"It is totally indigenous and peaceful," said Sajad Lone, a separatist involved in talks with New Delhi for years. His father was a moderate separatist leader murdered by suspected militants.

"My generation was anti-India. But this generation hates India," he added, emphasizing the word "hates".

"The children of conflict have taken over."