Kashmir Valley on edge as students clash with police

Srinagar: Dozens of students, including women, were injured on Monday in intense clashes with the police and other security forces in different towns of Kashmir, including summer capital Srinagar. Several security personnel also sustained injuries in stone-pelting incidents, officials said.

Following the day-long clashes, the authorities ordered the closure of schools, colleges and other educational institutions on Tuesday “as a precautionary measure”, and all university and other examinations scheduled for the day have been postponed. Mobile Internet services were also suspended as people had started uploading videos showing “atrocities” being inflicting on protesting students on social media sites.

In the evening, chief minister Mehbooba Muti was with governor N.N. Vohra at Raj Bhavan in the winter capital Jammu to discuss the situation and other law and order-related issues as well the bypolls in Srinagar and in Anantnag, official sources said.

The clashes erupted soon after the students took to the streets at these places to protest against the “brutal use of force” against their comrades in and outside the government-run Degree College in southern Pulwama town on Saturday. More than 50 students had been injured as the security forces used teargas and shotgun pellets against the male and female students who were protesting against the police establishing a checkpoint outside the campus.

The call for holding protests against the Pulwama incidents had been issued by a students’ union.

Police sources and witnesses said that the students, while responding to the call, boycotted their classes and held protests in and outside educational institutions in all ten districts of the Valley — Srinagar, Shopian, Kulgam, Anantnag, Pulwama, Kupwara Baramulla, Ganderbal, Budgam and Bandipore. The security forces fired hundreds of teargas canisters and swung bamboo sticks to disperse the protesters, leaving dozens of them injured. In Srinagar, several students of the Government Women’s College at Moulana Azad Road fainted after the police fired tear and pepper gas shells onto the protesters. Several police and other security personnel were also injured in stone-pelting by students in Srinagar and elsewhere, officials said. In Hajin area of Bandipore, a mob of students allegedly attacked a police station with rocks and other missiles, officials said.

Some schools, including the Delhi Public School at Srinagar, had declared a holiday on Monday in view of the growing tensions and resentment in the student community against Saturday’s incidents in Pulwama.

A statement issued by the police here in the evening said that, while at most places the students protested inside their college premises, at few others in Srinagar, Pulwama, Shopian and Kulgam they assembled on the roads and indulged in stone-pelting, thus disrupting the movement of general people and traffic. “The police at these places exhibited maximum restraint and dispersed the stone-pelting mobs of students after using some teargas shells. At some places, the college property was also damaged. In the resultant chaos, some students received minor injuries and most of them were discharged after first aid,” the statement said. It added, “While tackling the stone-pelting, SHO Kothibag (Srinagar) and four policemen were injured along the city’s Moulana Azad Road. A lady constable had a fracture in her arm.”

Former Chief Minister and opposition National Conference (NC) working president, Omar Abdullah, questioned the handling of students’ protests by the government. “I hope @MehboobaMufti has thought through the implications of mass student protests across the valley. This is a deeply worrying situation (sic),” he tweeted. He also asked on micro-blogging site Twitter.com “Why could all colleges/universities not have been closed for a few days after the Pulwama clashes? Is @MehboobaMufti not alert to situation? (sic).”

Private Schools Association of Kashmir has strongly condemned the use of force on students and said that it has shocked every parent and school management in the Valley. “It is unprecedented. We have not seen such a use of widespread force on students in almost every district simultaneously. It has been a nightmarish day for the entire education sector,” said G.N. Var, the chairman of the association in a statement here.
 
The students of Pulwama Degree College had alleged that the security forces not only harassed them but also barged into the college premises where they were forced them to chant slogans denouncing  the separatists and the militants and “freedom cause” and that when they protested against it the latter resorted to “brute force” against them. A couple of video later went viral on the social media showing a student being severely beaten by security personnel on a road and, in another, a group of students-one of them bleeding- being thrashed and forced to chant anti Pakistan and anti separatists slogans inside a security force vehicle.

The police had claimed that a normal naka had been established around 200 meters away from the college premises. It said, “As class work ended some miscreants started pelting stones at the naka party. To handle the stone pelting reinforcement was rushed to the spot.” The police statement had added, “The mob swelled as more students joined and pelted stones on the forces. In this incident some miscreants and police personnel were injured. One was referred to Srinagar hospital where his condition is stable”.

The police had also said that it wants to clarify that no raids were conducted and the video being shared on social networking sites is not from Pulwama.

However, the Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has taken cognizance of the “alleged” disproportionate use of force against students of Pulwama college. Its chairperson Justice Bilal Nazki has while took cognizance of the matter directed Superintendent of Police Pulwama to file a detailed report on the incidents within two weeks, a spokesman of the commission said.