Tens of thousands of Kashmiris filled the streets for a fourth day of protests Thursday, their anger inflamed over the transfer of land to a Hindu shrine in this Muslim-majority region. Protesters clashed with riot police in several parts of Srinagar, the main city of India's portion of Kashmir. Police responded to rock-throwers by firing live ammunition and tear gas into the air in an attempt to disperse the mobs, said police officer Sajjad Ahmed. More than twenty thousand people were protesting in towns across the Himalayan state, Ahmed said. Thousands of police and paramilitary soldiers were spread out across Srinagar and the rest of the state to control the angry mobs, he said. No injuries were immediately reported Thursday. Three people have been killed and dozens wounded since Monday as police tried to quell the protests that erupted over the transfer of 99 acres of land by the state government to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board, a trust running a popular Hindu shrine. Protesters accuse the Indian government of planning to build Hindu settlements in India's only Muslim majority state in order to change the demographic balance in the region. Across Kashmir, shops and offices were shut down in strikes and public transport was squeezed off the roads by marchers who filled the streets chanting, “Down with India,” and “We want freedom!” The state government canceled ongoing school and college exams across the region. “We are protesting against the land transfer, which is one of India's grand designs to consolidate the occupation of Kashmir,” said Mohammad Iqbal, who was marching in Srinagar's main business district. On Wednesday, Ghulam Nabi Azad, the chief minister of India's Jammu-Kashmir state, promised that there would be no construction on the transferred land and pledged to meet members of the state's political parties to address the protesters' grievances. The Amarnath shrine is a cave that housed a large icicle revered by Hindus. Hundreds of thousands of Hindus, who consider the cave sacred, are currently on an annual pilgrimage to visit the cave. Thousands of soldiers have been deployed along the pilgrims' route.
