Waving green Islamic flags and shouting “we want freedom”, tens of thousands of Muslims marched in Indian Kashmir's main city on Friday, resuming some of the biggest protests in two decades against Indian rule. Hundreds of trucks and buses brought the protesters, many of them sitting on roofs and hanging out of windows, for an independence rally to be addressed by separatist leaders. “There is no God but Allah” and “Indian forces go back,” the protesters shouted. Policemen and soldiers dressed in battle gear patrolled the streets as protesters arrived from nearby towns and villages. What began as a dispute over land for Hindu devotees visiting a shrine in Kashmir snowballed into full-scale anti-India protests this month, boosting separatists who want India's only Muslim-majority region to secede. Police have killed at least 23 Muslim protesters and over 500 have been injured in clashes in two weeks of demonstrations in Kashmir valley. Protests were halted for three days, until Friday, to allow Kashmiris to stock up on rations. The Kashmir demonstrations are some of the biggest since a separatist revolt against Indian rule broke out in the region in 1989. Tens of thousands of people were killed in that revolt.
