Word: azadi
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...Those assurances have failed to cool down tempers. The unrest has sparked Kashmiri separatists' call for azadi - "freedom" - once again, recalling scenes from a decades-long insurgency that has claimed many thousands of lives. In the first weeks of June, the streets of Srinagar and elsewhere have been filled with hundreds of men and women demanding independence from Indian rule. Syed Ali Shah Geelani, 79, a longtime separatist known for his hard standpoint on the issue of Kashmir, was quick to seize on the incident to mobilize protesters for his cause. He was arrested along with other key voices...
...separatist movement has been fighting to eject Indian troops from the region since 1989. The separatists' trump card has always been the threat to join Pakistan, which supported them with guns and guerrillas. India eventually silenced the separatists with force, but Amarnath has reignited their movement. The cries of "Azadi" (Freedom) and the Pakistani flags waving above the crowd of 500,000 people at one particularly fierce protest on Aug. 18 made the point that Kashmiris were once again ready to leave India...
...have anything to do with us?" wrote columnist Vir Sanghvi in the Hindustan Times. "Is it time the K-word got out of India, and India out of the K-word?" asked political satirist Jug Suraiya in the Times of India. Novelist Arundhati Roy argued that "India needs azadi from Kashmir just as much - if not more - than Kashmir needs azadi from India...
...Azadi!" has been the cry across the stunningly beautiful Kashmir Valley for two weeks now. Shouting the word for "freedom," hundreds of thousands of Kashmiris have been marching to demand liberty from India. Schools and businesses across the region have been closed, as the central government in New Delhi has mobilized thousands of troops into the area to assert its control. So far, at least 23 people have been killed and 500 injured in clashes with Indian security forces. A three-day respite to allow locals to stock on essentials ended on Aug. 22 with a resumption of protests...
...BARRED. Laleh Seddigh, 29, female driver dubbed Iran's "Little Schumacher," who in 2004 became the first Iranian woman to compete against men in any sport; from participating in a race at the capital's Azadi Stadium; in Tehran. Despite a recent fatwa allowing women to race against men, stewards prevented Seddigh from entering the driver's seat of her 1,600-cc Peugeot just 206 minutes before the race, citing "security reasons." Seddigh, the 2005 champion of Iran's once all-male racing circuit, scoffed that racing officials "were afraid that I would win again...