Policemen detain Masroor Abbas Ansari (centre), leader of All-Parties Hurriyat Conference, as his supporters resist during a protest march in Srinagar on Thursday. (Photo: AP)
More trouble is brewing for the authorities in Kashmir even as the security forces including Army have stepped up their activities and synergy and are implementing stricter security measures to contain a 5-week-old unrest in the Valley triggered by the killing of Burhan Muzaffar Wani, a 22-year-old new age poster boy of militancy, by troops on July 8.
On Thursday, three more companies of CRPF (370 men) along with the weapons and riot gear were flown here in an IAF plane from Tripura to join the effort. Earlier, more than five thousands personnel from the CRPF and other central armed forces were brought here from different parts of the country for law and order duties across the Kashmir Valley.
On Thursday, separatists announced a “referendum march” would be held on August 13 and 14, asking people to relocate to Srinagar’s historic central square Lal Chowk. Similar pursuits in past one month have led to bloody face-offs between people and security forces, resulting into more deaths.
“People will begin marching on Lal Chowk from all over Kashmir on the morning of August 13. We would at the referendum rally not only rededicate ourselves to the cause of freedom but seize the occasion also to convey to India and rest of the world that our peaceful struggle for freedom would continue and will not capitulate till Kashmir dispute is resolved as per the wishes and aspiration of its 15 million people,” said Mr Mirwaiz Umar Farooq who is part of an “issue-based” loose alliance of key separatist leaders, including Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Muhammad Yasin Malik, which is spearheading the ongoing agitation.
