SRINAGAR, India, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of
Muslims marched peacefully past the United Nations office in
Indian Kashmir on Monday, calling on the international body to
intervene over the disputed Himalayan region.
 

Demonstrators shouting "Oh tyrants and oppressors leave our
Kashmir" marched to police barricades within a few hundred
metres of the U.N. Military Observer Group in India and
Pakistan (UNMOGIP) office in Srinagar, summer capital of Indian
Kashmir.
 

The organisers, Kashmir's main separatist All Parties
Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference alliance, handed over a petition
against Indian rule.
 

A row over land allocated to Hindu pilgrims visiting a
shrine in Kashmir has snowballed into full scale anti-India
protests, uniting separatists and reviving calls for Kashmiri
independence.
 

Marches last week led to police killing at least 22 Muslim
demonstrators, including a senior separatist leader, inflaming
passions in one of the biggest separatist protests since a
revolt against Indian rule broke out in 1989.
 

UNMOGIP, one of the oldest U.N. missions, monitors a 1949
ceasefire line dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan.
 

People in cars, buses, and motorcycles, some of them
carrying banners which read "Indian forces go back" streamed
through Srinagar as troops kept their distance.
 

"This is a march for freedom, and God willing, Indian
occupation will end soon," Fayaz Ahmad Dar, a shopkeeper said.
 

Protests have also raised tensions between India and
Pakistan who claim the region  in full but rule in parts.
 

New Delhi has criticised Islamabad for interfering in its
internal affairs by calling for U.N. intervention in the
region.
 

The crisis began after the state government promised to
give forest land to a trust that runs Amarnath, a cave shrine
visited by Hindu pilgrims. Many Muslims were enraged.
 

The government then rescinded its decision, which in turn
angered Hindus in Jammu who attacked trucks carrying supplies
to the Kashmir valley and often blocked the region's  highway,
the only surface link with the rest of India.
 

In the region's Hindu-dominated Jammu region, thousands of
Hindu protesters courted arrest on Monday to protest against
what they called a delay in handing over land to Hindu
pilgrims.
 

In Kashmir, more than 43,000 people have been killed in
violence, involving Indian troops and Muslim militants, since
1989.
 

Human rights groups put the toll at about 60,000 dead or
missing.