21 more hurt in fresh clashes in Kashmir

Mehbooba rushes to Delhi to meet Rajnath.

The unrest in the Kashmir Valley, triggered by the killing of militant commander Burhan Wani, entered into its second month on Monday when nine more protesters and twelve security personnel were injured in fresh clashes.

With no let up in sight chief minister, Mehbooba Mufti, rushed to Delhi to discuss the situation with home minister and other central government functionaries.

Curfews forced people to remain indoors in central Srinagar and the towns of Anantnag, Shopian and Kulgam, whereas security clampdowns were in place in Sopore, Baramulla, Handwara, Langaet, Kupwara, Bandipore, Ganderbal, Budgam and some other towns. Elsewhere, life continued to be at a standstill due to the shutdown called for by the separatists.

In Shopian, hundreds of mourners attended the funeral of 17-year-old Amir Bashir Lone who died in a Srinagar hospital earlier during the day on Monday. He was among the protesters injured in security forces’ actions on Friday when almost the entire Valley had erupted as the authorities foiled the separatists’ Hazratbal chalo march. Doctors said dozens of pellets had pierced Lone’s skull after being shot from point blank range.

With the latest death, the toll has risen to 56. Two policemen have also died in mob attacks during the turbulence triggered by the killing of Hizb-ul-Mujahedin’s Internet-savvy “poster boy” Burhan Muzaffar Wani on July 8.

At least eight persons, including three women, were injured — two of them critically — when security forces fired pellet guns and teargas canisters to quell a protest at Simthan in southern Bijbehara area.

The police said four other stone-pelting incidents were reported from other parts in Anantnag, Sopore and Bandipore districts. One person was injured in pellet gun firing in Kupwara, a report said.

On the Simthen incident, the police said that a group of “miscreants” assembled in the village and tried to block the Srinagar-Jammu highway by placing wooden logs and other obstacles to restrict the vehicular traffic.

“The miscreants also smashed the panes of some vehicles and tried to stop the vehicles including trucks carrying essential commodities,” it said adding that a police party visited the spot to ensure smooth vehicular movement on the highway but the “miscreants” resorted to stone pelting injuring 12 personnel.

Police admitted that curfew was in force in parts of Srinagar and Anantnag, whereas restrictions under Section 144 CrPC remained in force in rest of the Valley. “But overall situation remained normal and under control,” it said.

The J&K police has set up helpline in the police control rooms of various districts for the general public who wish to inform it about “harassment by hooligans, stoppage and disruption of the traffic by miscreants, damage or arson to the public property or obstacles erected on roads and lanes”.

On Monday, lawmakers and other activists of opposition National Conference (NC) marched along the streets to Srinagar to denounce “terrible excess” being inflicted on the Kashmiri population by security forces in the name of containing unrest. Placards in their hands read “Stop killing of innocents”, “Stop use of excessive force” and “Start dialogue process”. Police came in their way and after a minor scuffle, the rally ended peacefully, witnesses said.

Meanwhile, following reports that members of minority Sikh and Hindu communities are facing problems in some parts of the Valley and in the backdrop of leaflets appearing in Shopian district which asked the Kashmir Pandits living or working in the area to leave, the alliance of key separatist leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik on Monday asked people to discourage and beware the elements behind the distraction. The Mirwaiz, who is also chief Muslims cleric of Kashmir in a separate statement expressed concern over what he said “certain mischievous and anti freedom struggle elements working overtime in certain areas to give a bad name to the ongoing resistance movement by creating discord among the people and trying to rake up communal and sectarian issues”. He said, “I call upon people to beware of these elements and let all know the Sikhs and Pandits of the Valley are an inseparable part of the Kashmiri society and as safe as we are here”.

Militant outfit Hizb-ul-Mujahedin, however, blamed the issuance of anti Pandit leaflets on the government saying it is “once again misusing the Kashmiri Pandits to defame the Kashmir freedom struggle”. Distancing itself from these leaflets, the Hizb’s deputy chief Saifullah Khalid said, “Indian agencies are once again trying to play Pandit card to show that our freedom struggle is ‘terrorism and communalism’.” He added that no outfit by the name of Lashkar-e-Islami existed and alleged “Indian agencies are using these fake names to defame the freedom movement.”

However, police said that the obscure group Lashkar-e-Islami believed to had been formed by a splinter group of militants from the Hizb surfaced in north Kashmir few months ago and was involved in attacks on Cellular phone towers and kiosks. It also said that the outfit no presence in southern Shopian and Pulwama districts. End it