Feature: Hindus celebrate Holi, festival of colors in Indian-controlled Kashmir

The Hindus in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Friday celebrated Holi, the Hindu festival of colors with enthusiasm and religious fervor.

Holi is an ancient Indian festival, which marks the end of winter and the onset of spring.

The festival is celebrated by smearing colors and splashing colored water on each other.

Young people including women and children were seen splashing and smearing colors on each other. The teenagers drenched in water colors walked along roads and streets throwing colors on passers- by.

The major celebration took place in Jammu city, the winter capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir. People's faces smeared with red, yellow, green, pink and blue colors were seen hugging and laughing all along the city.

The markets and temples in Jammu were decorated with electric bulbs and buntings. People had also made a beeline at city's temples. The Shopkeepers and vendors selling dry colors and water canons do brisk business during Holi.

"Holi gives us a reason to celebrate and be joyous," Rupesh Bhatt, a practicing Hindu, said. "The festival teaches us to strengthen the bond between people and gives us a reason to cheer- up."

In Srinagar city, the region's summer capital, Hindus, which include the small community of non-local Hindus (mostly skilled laborers, apprentices, traders and businessmen) also celebrated Holi.

Members of the community dressed in new clothes were seen applying color to each other and offering sweets.

A major celebration was organized by Indian border guards of Border Security Force (BSF) inside their camp in the outskirts of Srinagar city.

The border guards living with their families were seen hued in colors dancing to the beats of drums and songs of famous Bollywood (Hindi film) music.

Thousands of Indian army and paramilitary troopers far away from their families also gathered inside their stationed camps across the region to celebrate the festival.

Indian troops stationed in the region fighting militants are reported to be under extreme stress and strain. During the past two decades several incidents of suicide and fratricide among the stationed troops were reported.

Indian-controlled Kashmir is considered as one of the highest militarized regions. Officially India does not reveal the actual number of its troops deployed in the troubled region. However, rights activists say there are more than 700,000 Indian troops and paramilitary troops in the region fighting an anti-India insurgency that broke out in 1989.

Holi is being celebrated by Hindus every year in the region along with many other Indian states.

Originally known as Holika, historians say the festival was introduced in India by Aryans.

The festival is mostly popular with the young and grown up children, who begin the colorful celebrations several days ahead of the main festival. However on the eve of Holi, elderly people too join in.

The region's Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed and Governor N N Vohra have extended greetings to Hindus on the occasion of Holi.

The social networking websites on the Internet were abuzz with the Holi greetings and colorful pictures.

To coincide with Holi, Google released a new doodle on its homepage to celebrate the ancient Indian festival. The doodle features Google logo being splashed by lively colors, followed by a smiling face with the two O's of Google turning into eyes. Endi