While the Shi’ite Ashura festivals went off peacefully in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir this year, there were riots on the Indian side of the Line of Control. Islamabad’s official Associated Press of Pakistan writes Jan. 21 that “[T]he occupying Indian troops subjected hundreds of mourners to brute force in Srinagar and several other places in the held state to prevent them from taking out Ashura procession.” India’s NDTV reports that incidents of “stone-pelting” erupted after police tried to break up “clashes…between members of the Shia and Sunni communities…after a Shia procession was taken out in Gojwara, which is a predominantly Sunni area.” The Srinagar-based Greater Kashmir News Network reports Jan. 24 that ten detainees in the city are on hunger strike to protest their failure to be brought before a magistrate.
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