SRINAGAR (AFP) - Police fired teargas Friday to disperse an anti-India demonstration by Kashmiris celebrating Pakistans Independence Day. Scores of young men, some waving the Pakistani flag, emerged out of the Indian regions main Mughal-built mosque in Srinagar and staged a noisy pro-Pakistan demonstration. They burst crackers and burned the Indian flag as police fired repeated teargas canisters to disperse the demonstrators, who eventually retreated into narrow lanes from where they pelted officers with stones and bricks. A nearly 20-year-old Muslim insurgency in Kashmir has claimed more than 47,000 lives. The majority of Kashmiri leaders in the occupied valley favour its secession from India to neighbouring Pakistan. The Indian army Friday took positions in buildings, including hospitals which overlook the venue for celebrations of Indias Independence Day on Saturday which is boycotted by the Kashmiris. Sharpshooters mounted machine guns and grenade launchers on the top storeys in Srinagar to keep vigil on Bakshi Stadium which will host a tightly guarded ceremony, the first to be attended by new leader Omar Abdullah. The venue has been attacked by rockets and bombs on past Independence Days, which the separatists mark each year with a strike.