Separatist strike cripples Kashmir
Tensions run high in divided region as India and Pakistan prepare for high-level talks.
On Tuesday, security forces erected more checkpoints and laid razor wire on roads in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Jammu and Kashmir state, in an attempt to thwart separatist rallies.
India-Pakistan talks
With tensions running high in Kashmir, there is increased interest in high-level talks that India and Pakistan are to have on Thursday.
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SM Krishna, the Indian foreign minister, is scheduled to travel to Islamabad for talks with Shah Mehmood Qureshi, his Pakistani couterpart.
Raja Farooq Haider, the leader of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, said on Tuesday that the talks “can be meaningful only if Kashmiris are made part of it”.
Analysts say the dispute over Kashmir – a territory claimed in entirety by both India and Pakistan – would figure high on the agenda.
Thursday’s meeting would be the highest-level contact between the two countries since New Delhi broke off normalisation talks with Islamabad over the attack on its financial capital, Mumbai, in November 2008.
India blames Pakistan-based armed groups for the attack and has been pressing the Pakistani government to crack down on them before negotiations could restart.