Police detain top Kashmir separatist leader

By Sheikh Mushtaq

SRINAGAR (Reuters) - Police detained on Friday a prominent Kashmiri separatist leader who led some of the biggest protests in two decades against India's rule in the Himalayan region, police said.

The arrest came as security forces intensified a crackdown against separatists across Muslim-majority Kashmir valley and extended a curfew in the disputed region for a sixth straight day on Friday to quell pro-independence rallies.

"Shabir Shah was detained during a raid on a hideout," a police official said.

Shah, dubbed by supporters "Kashmir's Nelson Mandela" for the more than 20 years he has spent in prisons for opposing Indian rule, is an executive member of the region's separatist alliance, All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference.

Police have also detained four other separatist leaders, including a top woman separatist, since Monday in an effort to defuse protests.

At least 30 Muslim protesters have been killed by security forces in the past three weeks and more than 600 have been injured in demonstrations in Kashmir Valley after a land dispute between Muslims and Hindus snowballed into massive pro-separatist demonstrations.

The crisis has strained relations between India and Pakistan, which both claim the region in full but rule in parts, damaging a tentative peace process and raising fears Kashmir could again become a hotspot between the two nuclear rivals.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in Kashmir since the armed revolt against New Delhi's rule broke out in 1989.