Pakistani activists blocked in bid to deliver aid to Kashmir

MUZAFFARABAD (Pakistan) August 3

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Hundreds of Pakistani supporters of a militant-linked charity tried to cross into the Indian part of the divided Kashmir region on Wednesday to deliver aid after weeks of violent protests there.

Activists from the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), the charitable arm of the anti-India Lashker-e-Toiba militant group, did not have permission from either the Pakistani or Indian authorities to cross the contested border and were stopped in a village on the Pakistani side where they staged a protest.

"We will continue the sit-in until these essential food supplies are sent across the divide into the curfew-ridden Kashmir valley," Hafiz Abdul Rauf, a senior official of the charity, said.

The United States designated the charity a "foreign terrorist organisation" in 2010. The group denies any militant activity.

The JuD activists, chanting "annihilation of India", tried to approach the LoC but were kept well back by steel barricades erected by Pakistani security forces in the village of Chakothi.

The protest came hours before Indian Interior Minister Rajnath Singh arrived in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, for regional talks.

A Kashmiri militant commander, Syed Salahuddin, led a protest in Islamabad against Singh's visit earlier on Wednesday. About 300 people attended.

Salahuddin said Singh was "a killer of Kashmiris" and Pakistan should cut diplomatic ties with India over the violence in Indian Kashmir. 

Forty-six people have been killed and nearly 6,000 wounded — including Indian security forces — since protests erupted in Kashmir after the killing of a militant commander on July 8. — Reuters