Homes burn as Hindu-Muslim anger grows in Kashmir

By Alistair Scrutton

GARKHAL, India (Reuters) - When a mob shouting praises for a Hindu god torched this Muslim hamlet, any hopes of religious peace in India's Kashmir state may have been destroyed along with these charred homes and scarred drums of ruined wheat.

"We never had a problem like this before," said Bashir Ahmed, a farmer from the Muslim Gujjar community. In oppressive humidity of a dark cattle shed with scorched brick walls, he revealed crescent-shaped scars on his back from the mob's beating.

"I had heard from parents about '47," he said, referring to Partition in 1947 when India and Pakistan were formed and hundreds of thousands were killed in religious clashes.

"But this is the first time I have seen anything like this."

The burning of several hamlets in early August was one of at least 72 attacks on Muslim homes in Jammu and Kashmir state over the last three weeks as a land row over a Hindu shrine escalated, state officials said.

At least 13 protesters were killed by police on Tuesday in the Muslim Kashmir Valley in some of the worst clashes since a separatist insurgency against Indian rule broke out in 1989.

But demands from Hindus for land in Muslim Kashmir have also opened a new front in Hindu-majority Jammu, threatening to worsen communal ties in parts of the state largely untouched by insurgency, with fears it could spread to other parts of India.

Simmering anger from minority Hindus in the state over what they see as years of discrimination by a Muslim Kashmir majority has channelized into demands for 100 acres of forest land to be allotted to a trust that runs Amarnath, a cave shrine.

Most protests in Jammu have been peaceful and organizers say they are not motivated by religion. But residents are worried.

At least two people were killed and dozens injured on Tuesday during clashes between Muslims and Hindus in Jammu.

Standing only a few hundred meters from the Pakistani border, Gujjars in Garkhal told how Hindus shouted "Burn them all!" and chanted slogans for the Hindu god Lord Shiva. Due to the intervention of security forces, no one was killed.

"Both our regions are poles apart, with daggers drawn," said state government spokesman K.B Jandial.

That was easy to see in Garkhal.

Charred wood, stained tin drums and a burnt bicycle were all that remained in an area roughly the size of a football pitch.

The attacks by several thousand Hindu villagers were sparked, villagers say, by rumors a Muslim boy had attacked a Hindu girl.