Right-wing groups stage anti-Pakistan protests in India

Dozens of rightwing protesters gathered in central New Delhi Monday, denouncing Pakistan following the attack yesterday on an Indian Army camp in Kashmir that left 17 soldiers dead, an epa journalist reports.

Three rightwing Hindu nationalist groups marched along Parliament Street today, including the Hindu Sena organization, which burned effigies of Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, while another group burned a Pakistani flag.

About 50 members of Hindu Sena also chanted slogans, such as “Pakistan down down” and blamed Sharif for the deadly attack on the army camp in the restive Kashmir region.

Vishnu Gupta, international president of Hindu Sena, told epa at the protest site that “now it’s high time for India to take action and corner Pakistan diplomatically on an international front”.

Gupta demanded “aggressive action” against Pakistan, though he didn’t specify what that would entail.

Despite the fiery nature of the protests today, there were no reports of arrests or disturbances.

The insurgent attack yesterday in Uri, which lies about 115 kilometers west of Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir, is the worst such attack in more than 10 years in the Kashmir region.

Both Pakistan and India have competing claims to Kashmir and tensions that have festered there for decades exploded in early July after a local militant was killed by Indian security forces.

Since then violent protests have wracked the area which have left more than 85 people dead and injured more than 10,000.