Youth dies, 100 hurt in J&K violence

A 25-year-old youth was killed and about 100 people were injured in fresh clashes in Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday as curfew continued to be in force on the 44th day in Srinagar and Anantnag, besides the highway town of Pampore, whereas security restrictions were imposed in rest of the Valley on Sunday.

Officials at Srinagar’s government-run Sri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital (SMHS) said that on Sunday evening a youth was brought there in a critical condition and that he died soon thereafter. “He had been hit by a teargas canister in his chest and succumbed to his injuries before we could move him to the theatre,” said a doctor.

Witnesses said that the youth, Irfan Ahmed, a resident of Srinagar’s Fatah Kadal, was hit by a teargas shell during a protest in the city’s Nowhatta area.

As many as 70 people were injured when security forces fired teargas canisters and pellet guns to quell protests and stone-pelting in the Behrampora area of Rafiabad in north-western Baramulla district earlier during the day. Reports said that massive pro-aazadi protests were underway in the area when the security force arrived at the scene and soon clashed with protesters. A local government doctor said that about 50 injured were treated at a hospital in Rafiabad and the rest were referred to different hospitals in neighbouring Sopore and Baramulla.

Two youth were injured in pellet gun firing on violent protesters at Mominabad in curfew-bound southern Anantnag town, the police and hospital sources said. One of them, identified as 21-year-old B.Tech student Aadil Rashid, has been hit in both eyes and chest and the other in arm, the sources. Following the incident, protests and clashes erupted in the town’s Janglat Mandi and Khananbal areas, whereas these were already underway in neighbouring Uran Hall and Pazalpora villages of Bijbehara.

Nine persons were injured when the security forces allegedly targeted a marriage party in Trumgund village on the outskirts of north-western Sopore town, reports said.

The police said that it is investigating why the marriage party was attacked.

Six persons, including two women, were injured in clashes between irate crowds and security forces in the Haigam area of Baramulla. Witnesses said that the security forces fired teargas canisters and pellet guns to stop the protesters from from coming on the Srinagar-Muzaffaabad road. About a dozen more people were injured in clashes at other places, reports said.

A statement issued by the police here, however, spoke about only three incidents of stone-pelting during the day and said these took place in the Kangan area of Ganderbal district and Trumgund and Behrampora in Baramulla. “The miscreants assembled on roads and pelted stones on police and security forces”, the statement said, adding that apart from these incidents, situation remained under control across the Valley “till the filing of this report”.

Curfew continued to be in force on the 44th day in Srinagar and Anantnag besides the highway town of Pampore whereas security restrictions were imposed in rest of the Valley on Sunday.

Protests and rallies were held at about two dozen places across the Valley, reports said. One such ‘pro-aazadi, rally was attended by thousands of people at Parigam in southern Pulwama district. Witnesses said that the participants were hysterically yelling pro-freedom and pro-Pakistan slogans and waved dozens of flags of the neighbouring country.

At another such rally held at neighbouring Rehmoo, 20 Panches and two Sarpanches affiliated with ruling PDP and opposition National Conference announced their resignations. “They apologised to the people for having sided with these parties and contesting local body elections and then chanted pro-freedom slogans,” a local resident told over the phone. Reports from south Kashmir said that about 500 activists of mainstream parties have quit their respective parties and made their decisions known at such rallies and also pledged to actively support the “freedom” cause over the past six weeks.

Meanwhile, five milk-van drivers were injured when allegedly attacked by security forces at Newa in Pulwama. They were carrying pasteurized milk in packets for Srinagar and other parts of the Valley from leading local producers Haleeb, Zam Zam and Nyamat when their vehicles were signalled to stop. “The CRPF men then dragged the drivers out of their vehicles, hit them with batons and gun-butts and then forced them to crawl about 400 meters on the road,’ alleged president of SIDCO Lassipora Truck Union, Manzoor Ahmed. The injured have been admitted to Pulwama’s district hospital.

For past few days, the security forces including J&K police and CRPF are hindering essential supplies to Srinagar and some other Valley towns whereas the truck and oil tanker operators have gone on indefinite strike in entire Jammu and Kashmir after complaining that their vehicles have come under frequent attacked in the Valley.

Geelani seeks explanation from Srinagar newspapers: Separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani has asked the Srinagar newspapers to explain why they failed to publish a paid advertisement from an alliance he is a part of which had asked the lawmakers of different political parties to quit.

In a statement here on Sunday, the octogenarian separatist leader said that only Kashmir Reader and Urdu daily Tameel-e- Irshad “dared” to publish the alliance’s paid advertisement and sought clarification from other newspapers. “We had issued a paid poster appeal requesting MLAs, MLCs and other pro-Indian politicians to introspect and stop acting as a local mask to the Indian brutalities. Everyone agreed to publish it as (poster advertisement) but none of them except Kashmir Reader and Tameel-e- Irshad had dared to publish it,” he said.

He, as per a report in Kashmir Reader, also said, “We reserve the right to ask our newspaper owners to come clear in this regard. These were only words with no bombs, bullets, pullets, not even stones and I fail to understand why they were sacred of it.”