More killed in fresh J&K clashes, toll 21

With five more persons killed during fresh clashes on Sunday and three more shot on Saturday succumbing to their injuries in hospitals overnight, the toll in firings and other action by the security forces in the Kashmir Valley has risen to 20. In addition, police driver Afroz Ahmed was on Sunday pushed into the River Jhelum at Sangam outside Srinagar by a mob.

As the number of casualties rose at various hospitals across the Valley, a medical emergency was declared and the authorities asked doctors and paramedical staff now on leave to resume duty immediately. Srinagar’s main government-run SMHS Hospital had till Sunday evening received over 100 patients, with most having sustained bullet or pellet injuries or were hit by teargas canisters or stones in clashes.

The principal of Government Medical College, Srinagar, Dr Qasiar Ahmad, who is also head of all associated hospitals, confirmed a medical emergency was declared and routine admissions and the leaves of all doctors had been cancelled.

Curfew was extended to more areas in Kashmir from Saturday midnight as protests and violence over the killing of Burhan Muzaffar Wani, the new-age poster boy of militancy, claimed more lives. Over 250 people, including over 100 security personnel, were injured in clashes and violence in the past two days. Around half a dozen protesters who got bullet wounds in security forces’ firing was said to be critical.

Anger is at its height and many people, mainly youth, are venting it on the streets. In a drive through parts of Srinagar on Sunday afternoon, this correspondent saw streets in otherwise curfew-bound town littered with rocks, bricks, concrete blocks and burning piles of used tyres. The air was filled with the acrid smell of teargas. Hordes of youngsters were occupying these streets, many holding their hands up in defiance and yelling “azadi, azadi”. Protests and clashes were on in several areas. In the evening, one protester was killed in firing by the security forces at Tengpora, a Srinagar suburb. Almost all other deaths were reported from the southern districts of Anantnag, Kulgam, Shopian and Pulwama.

Thirty additional companies of Central forces which arrived here from Delhi in chartered flights overnight were quickly transported to various Valley towns to enforce the curfew. Major parts of Srinagar and almost the whole of south Kashmir, that has seen the worst incidents of violence for a long time, is reeling under strict curfew since Saturday morning. Various cities and towns in northern and central Kashmir too have been brought under restrictions or a security lockdown is being maintained.

The J&K Cabinet held an emergency meeting here chaired by chief minister Mehbooba Mufti to discuss the situation. DGP K. Rajendra Kumar briefed the ministers on the ground situation. He was away on a private visit to Hyderabad, his hometown, but rushed back to oversee the law and order situation after a call from the chief minister.

Kashmir’s divisional commissioner Asgar Hussain Samoon said curfew had been clamped on the entire Kashmir Valley, that has a population of over five million, from Saturday midnight. Thousands of J&K policemen and CRPF personnel in riot gear are on patrol in the deserted streets of Srinagar to enforce the curfew.

A police spokesman claimed the situation in the Valley was under control in spite of fresh incidents of arson and mob violence reported from certain areas. He said stone-pelting incidents took place at various places in Pulwama, Shopian, Kulgam, Baramulla, Kupwara, Srinagar and Budgam districts. He confirmed that three persons, identified as Irfan Ahmed Malik, Gulzar Ahmed Pandit and Fayaz Ahmed Waza, were critically injured in security forces’ firing in Pulwama and later died in hospital.

Almost all separatist leaders have been taken into preventive custody or placed under house arrest. In a joint decision announced Saturday, they extended the strike call initially issued to mourn and protest against the killing of Wani along with two associates during an encounter with the security forces in Kokernag area of southern Anantnag district on July 8 for two more days (Sunday, Monday) in view of the killing of protesters.in security forces’ firings.

A government-run hospital in Lolab area of Kupwara district and a nearby pharmacy were alleged ransacked and their staff roughed up by the security forces as they were “angry” over those sustaining injuries during protests being treated there, a report from Kupwara said. Dr Aadil Ashraf, president of the Resident Doctors’ Association at Srinagar’s SMHS Hospital and associated hospitals, expressed serious concern over the alleged harassment of hospital staff by the security forces which, he alleged, resorted to teargas shelling even inside the SMHS Emergency.

Former chief minister and National Conference working president Omar Abdullah, responding to the government’s appeal to help it in the effort to restore normality in the Valley, tweeted: “The @JKNC_ will never be an irresponsible party & opposing you will never mean setting the state on fire for narrow political ends.” He, however, asked Mehbooba Mufti to lead from the front. He wrote on Twitter: “Please don’t take the easy option of hiding behind your spokesperson & your police officers. No one elected them, the people elected you... This is the time to lead from the front. You must accept the responsibility both for letting things get to this point as for the recovery.”

The Amarnath yatra from Jammu is still suspended. As the 94-km Jammu-Srinagar highway, the vital road link linking the Kashmir Valley with the rest of the country, remained shut for the second consecutive day, no pilgrim was allowed to move from the winter capital towards the Valley to relocate to the 12,729-foot-high cave-shrine tucked away in the Pahalgam hills in south Kashmir. However, with 8,611 devotees who were already in the Valley paying obeisance at the cave-shrine on Sunday, as many as 127,358 pilgrims have already been to Amarnath so far this year. The 48-day yatra began on July 2.

The authorities have also suspended Internet services on mobile phones and through dongles “as a precautionary measure”. Internet services are still functioning on fixed broadband lines. Train services between Baramulla in northwest Kashmir and Banihal town across the Pirpanjal mountain ridge in Jammu division were suspended too. The J&K Board of School Education, Kashmir University and Central University, Kashmir, had postponed all examinations due for Saturday to Monday.

Meanwhile, dozens of wedding ceremonies which had been planned during this weekend and early next week have been cancelled or deferred in view of the volatile situation and curfews being enforced in the Valley. Srinagar newspapers were on Sunday full of paid classified ads from the hosts announcing the annulment of invitation cards issued for customary wazwan feasts to mark these weddings. Most of them, however, also said nikah ceremonies would be held with “sadagi”, or simplicity.