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Indian govt appeals for calm in Kashmir

AFP, Srinagar
India's home minister appealed for calm yesterday in Muslim-majority Kashmir, gripped by the worst religious tensions in decades.
"There should not be a regional divide or a communal divide," said Home Minister Shivraj Patil in Kashmir after weekend meetings with political and religious leaders in the Himalayan region.
"This is the desire of all the people of Kashmir and of the country. We request everybody to keep the peace."
Tensions flared in June when the state government said it was transferring land in the disputed area to Hindu pilgrims, sparking violent protests by Muslims against "Hindu colonisation" that left at least sixpeople dead.
But after the government backed off from the plan, protesters in the state's Hindu-dominated Jammu region took to the streets in demonstrations that saw three Hindus killed in the past week.
Hindu hardliners have also attacked Muslims and blocked a 3OU kllOihettc n86-mile) highway
-- the sole Jink between the Kashmir valley and other parts of India -- preventing vital supplies from reaching or leaving Muslim areas.
The de facto economic blockade has hit particularly hard fruit growers unable to sell their produce, as well as led to shortages in the supply of medicines.
The army on Friday warned protesters not to stop vehicles on the highway but the truck attacks have continued.
Patil said officials would make sure traffic kept moving and compensate the angry fruit growers --who have threatened to cross the border to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and sell their produce there.
"We are telling them not to worry, not to take other routes. That will not be right for us and it will not be right for you," said Patil.
"The fruit growers will not be allowed to face losses. The government will do everything it can.”
Pakistan and India each hold Kashmir in part but claim it in full and the disputed territory has been the root of two of their three wars.
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on what would happen on the land transfer that first sparked the tension.
"We have to deal with it in a way that won't have a negative effect on Jammu or Kashmir," said Patil.
A prominent Kashmiri separatist, on a hunger strike since Tuesday against the attacks on Muslims and the economic blockade, called off his fast after the meeting and after receiving a message from India's prime minister.
"The government will take all steps to ensure safety of all its citizens," said the message from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Yasin Malik, who was hospitalised Thursday after his health deteriorated.
The state government collapsed over the issue last month after its main ally withdrew support and the scenic region has been put under federal rule.
The row has given new life to the separatist movement and stoked divisions in Kashmir, which was enjoying a lull in violence against the backdrop of India's peace process'with Pakistan to settle the regiori’sfuturt- 'J