High security in Indian-controlled Kashmir ahead of Zubin Mehta concert

Описание: (7 Sep 2013) Security forces in Indian-administered Kashmir were on high alert on Saturday as separatist groups called for a shutdown to protest against a concert by the India-born, Parsi conductor, Zubin Mehta.
Mehta will conduct the Bavarian State Orchestra in a performance hosted by the German embassy at the Shalimar Gardens in Srinagar later on Saturday, for an audience of 1500 people and a live television broadcast.
Hundreds of security personnel have been deployed near the venue in Srinagar, a 17th century Mughal garden on the banks of Dal lake, where Mehta will conduct the 100-member orchestra.
Omar Abdullah, the Chief Minister of Jammu-Kashmir, visited the venue on Friday, telling the media as he left, "I can't say anything about security. I just came here (Shalimar Gardens) to take account of the arrangements for the concert."
Mehta, a renowned conductor of Western Classical Music, is known for his work with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
Separatists say holding the concert in the disputed Himalayan region would legitimise Delhi's rule over the state and mislead the world about the situation on the ground.
They say that it is inappropriate to hold it at a time when the region is in turmoil.
"India is killing people of Kashmir, innocent people, small children. Mothers, our sisters are being molested, we are not even safe in our own homes," said one student protester, Ehmad Bhat, on a march through Srinagar on Friday.
"I think it is a part of collective conspiracy and cultural aggression, what India wants to create here."
Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan and claimed by both in its entirety.
Nearly half a dozen rebel groups have been fighting in the region.
Since 1989, an armed uprising and a subsequent crackdown by Indian forces have killed an estimated 68-thousand people.
Although the armed rebellion is largely suppressed, resentment against Indian rule runs deep.

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