SRINAGAR, June 27: Thousands demonstrated in the streets of occupied Kashmir on Friday, protesting the transfer of land to a Hindu shrine in what they charge is a ploy to change the demographic balance in the Muslim-majority region and demanding independence in some of the largest pro-freedom protests in the region in almost two decades.

Banks, schools and offices were closed and little traffic ventured on to the roads.

Police used live ammunition, teargas and bamboo batons in an attempt to quell the protests.

Three people have been killed and hundreds wounded over the last five days of demonstrations.

The protests were sparked by the recent transfer of 99 acres of land by the authorities to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board, a trust running a Hindu shrine, to construct facilities for the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who flock there every year.

The pilgrims come to see a large icicle housed in a cave that Hindus revere as an incarnation of their god of destruction and regeneration.

But Kashmiris, long mistrustful of the Indian government that has put down the freedom movement with a heavy hand and has some 700,000 soldiers based in Kashmir, saw nefarious designs in the move, believing that India would turn the structures into a permanent settlement for Hindus.

“The government has transferred land in order to change the demography of this place,” said Mian Qayoom, a prominent lawyer and head of a recently formed Action Committee Against Land Transfer.

“India has transformed this pilgrimage into an operation and is trying to imitate the Israeli operation of settlements in the occupied land of Palestine,” said Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the head of an umbrella group of political parties, who has been leading the protests.

Indian officials dismiss the allegations, saying that the government has never tried to encourage Hindu migration to the Muslim-majority region. The Indian constitution also prohibits outsiders from buying land in Kashmir.

“This is an orchestrated campaign to vitiate the atmosphere,” said Arun Kumar, a senior government official and the head of Amarnath Shrine Board.

“We’re not building any permanent structure near the cave shrine, and there is no question of permanent settlements there,” he said, adding that the plans were only for the construction of prefabricated shelters and bathrooms for the pilgrims.

Nevertheless, the issue has inflamed the public, bringing tens of thousands of people into the streets in protest that have spread across the region.

On Friday, protesters burned flags and effigies of Indian leaders and pelted police with stones, chanting “Tyrants, leave Kashmir!” and “We want freedom!”

Analysts said the protests were a message to India that they could not maintain calm in the region unless a proper solution of the Kashmir dispute was found.

“It’s the people’s response to the failure of the peace process (between Pakistan and India) in resolving the Kashmir dispute,” said Noor Mohammed Baba, a professor at the political science department in Kashmir University.

“These unprecedented protests should be a signal to the government of India that a semblance of peace does not automatically mean the (Kashmir) issue is resolved.”—Agencies