India-controlled Kashmir to complete census despite separatist threat

September 24, 2000
Web posted at: 7:08 AM HKT (2308 GMT)

SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) -- The government of India's troubled Jammu and Kashmir state said on Saturday it would complete the second phase of a census in the Kashmir valley that was interrupted by a militant separatist threat.

"The Jammu and Kashmir government has worked out a strategy to go ahead with the second and final phase of census operations at all costs," an official statement said.

"The enumerators and other related staff would be provided security for smooth and expeditious operations," the government statement said.

The second phase of the census in the rebellion-torn state began on September 11 and is scheduled to end on September 30.

A militant Kashmiri group, the Hizbul Mujahideen, threatened to use force if authorities did not stop the head count, saying it would exclude thousands of people who had fled, migrated or were in hiding or imprisoned during the troubles.

Officials said there was no disruption of the census in Jammu and Ladakh regions but many government employees in the Kashmir valley avoided participation after the threat.

The decision to continue was taken at a meeting on Friday of Kashmir's police chief and government officials in Srinagar, the state's summer capital, the statement said.

"If need arose, the time limit for the operations would be extended as per the provisions of the census law," it added.

Hizbul Mujahideen, which ended a brief cease fire last month, did not respond to a government appeal to "cooperate for smooth census operation in the valley."

Phase one of the census, the first in the state since 1981, began in May. India has held a census every 10 years since 1872 but violence prevented one being held a decade ago.

Jammu and Kashmir is India's only Muslim-majority state. Police and hospitals say more than 30,000 people have been killed in separatist violence since 1990.

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