From moneycontrol
Dec 09, 2010
The government said on Thursday the contours of a political solution to months of violent protests against Indian rule in the disputed Kashmir region were likely to emerge in the next few months.
More than 100 people have been killed in the protests, the biggest since a separatist rebellion broke out in 1989, and separatist demands have ranged from granting of autonomy to outright independence from India.
"Contours of a political solution to the Kashmir problem are likely to emerge in the next few months," a government statement quoted Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram as saying after a meeting on Kashmir.
It was not immediately known if the separatists were onboard with any government plan to find a solution to the crisis in a region also claimed by India's traditional foe Pakistan.
The protests came after a period of relative calm in the region and were seen as the biggest challenge to Indian rule. They started on June 11 when a 17-year-old student died after being hit by a tear gas shell fired by police during a protest in Srinagar, Indian Kashmir's summer capital.
The deaths, mostly at the hands of government forces during protests, fuelled anger in Kashmir where sentiment against New Delhi's rule runs deep.
After several failed rounds of peace talks between moderate separatists and New Delhi, and a rise in killings blamed on security forces, India announced an 8-point confidence building measure in September.
It scaled back security in the region, formed a panel to talk to a cross section of Kashmiris, gave compensation to the family of dead protesters and a promise to review the scope for limiting a much-hated law that gives the military sweeping powers to search, arrest or shoot.
The government statement quoted Chidambaram as saying the government-appointed panel was "making good progress".
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