J&K: 1 dead, several hurt in fresh firing

At least one person was killed and half a dozen others injured in firing by security forces and other actions against protesters and stone-pelting mobs at various places across the Kashmir Valley on Friday.

The areas that erupted after Friday prayers, with huge slogan-chanting crowds taking to the streets and clashing with security forces, are Sopore, Ruhama, Panzla and Tarzoo in Baramulla district, Khumriyal, Natnusa and Kralgund in Kupwara, Prechoo, Tahab, Kakpora and Chursoo in Pulwama, Imam Sahib in Shopian, Manigam and Ganderbal town in Ganderbal, and about a dozen localities in Srinagar district. The J&K government shifted police DIG (South Kashmir) Nitish Kumar and Anantnag SSP Abdul Jabbar amid complaints of mishandling the law and order situations in the area. They are being replaced by DIG (Central Kashmir) G.H. Bhat and SSP (traffic, rural) Zubair Ahmad, respectively.

Witnesses and hospital sources said the slain youth, Mushtaq Ahmed Butt, had been hit in the head when police opened fire at protesters at Charsoo. He was first taken to a hospital at Pampore, the nearest town, where doctors on seeing his condition referred him to Srinagar’s government-run Sri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) Hospital. But doctors there declared him brought dead. The police confirmed Butt was hit in the head but said it was a teargas canister, and not a bullet.

One person injured at Kakapora and admitted to SMHS Hospital had received pellet injuries, doctors said. In Sopore, a youth received a bullet wound in the head but his condition was “stable”, doctors said. Scores of others, including police and CRPF personnel, were injured in clashes in Sopore, 48 km northwest of here. The clashes were still on when reports last came in.

Yet another youth among those injured in the initial period of the ongoing turbulence succumbed in a Srinagar hospital early Friday. With these two deaths, the number of those killed in security force firing and other actions in the past 14 days has risen to 47. Unofficial reports put the toll at 50.

A statement issued by the police here Friday evening said, “The security forces’ deployments exercised restraint... The parents are requested not to allow their wards to become part of the mobs of miscreants.”

Police and Central security forces enforced curfew strictly in Srinagar and other Valley towns on the 14th day running on Friday. Friday congregational prayers were not allowed at Srinagar’s Grand Mosque and some other major places of worship. However, Friday namaz was offered in mohalla mosques and also at Hazratbal shrine on the shores of the Dal Lake but was attended by residents of the area only. Curfew-defying crowds took to the streets at places to chant pro-freedom slogans and soon clashed with security forces.

The Kashmir Valley erupted earlier this month following the killing of a popular militant commander, Burhan Muzaffar Wani, by troops. More than 3,000 people have been injured, over 150 of them maimed and blinded by pellet-gun shot used by security forces on protesters who took to the streets in huge numbers to mourn and protest Burhan Wani’s killing and later also over the deaths in security force actions against violent mobs across the Valley.

Union home minister Rajnath Singh, who told Parliament on Thursday that a committee of experts would be set up to suggest an “alternative” to pellet guns, is scheduled to arrive in Srinagar on Saturday to review the prevailing situation. Officials sources said the home minister was briefed about the “alarming nature” of the situation, after which he decided to personally visit Srinagar and meet senior government functionaries, officers of the police and other security forces, local commanders of the Army and leaders and representatives of various mainstream political parties.

On Thursday, a joint meeting of these parties here in Srinagar to deliberate on the current unrest in the Valley had called for engaging all stakeholders in Kashmir in an effort to “carry forward the peace and reconciliation process” in the restive state. It also sought to convert what it said was a political consensus arrived at the meet into a national initiative to address the problems confronting Jammu and Kashmir and its people. The meeting recognised the fact that the incidents and events unfolding in the Valley were not merely a law and order problem but essentially a political issue.

Chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, who had convened the meeting, asked for “taking all the stakeholders on board” as part of a politically-inclusive agenda to address the problems confronting J&K. She also called for the revival of the dialogue process with Pakistan to ensure peace and stability in the region. The participants, with a couple of “quiet” exceptions, in one voice called for an end to the use of pellet guns. Endorsing them, the chief minister said, “I’m especially pained by the grievous eye injuries caused to some youth because of the pellets guns... this cruel method of crowd control will have to be done away with, sooner the better.”

The main Opposition National Conference (NC), which stayed away from the meet, in a statement issued here Friday slammed the PDP-BJP government for being “non-serious” about the situation in Kashmir and alleged that the “all-party meeting was a guilt-induced hogwash of the state government to absolve itself of its failures”.

Calling the government “dictatorial and insensitive”, the NC said the Valley has been under curfew for the past 14 days, with people craving for essential commodities, but it (the government) is busy with photo opportunities, a reference to the CM being officially photographed with the family members of one of the unnamed victims of violence at a government-owned dak bungalow in Anantnag on Thursday. “Some concrete steps, like restraint and immediate assistance to hospitals, need to be taken instead of referring or passing everything to Delhi,” the NC said.

Reacting to Mr Rajnath Singh’s statement that he would establish direct communication with the people of Kashmir, especially the youth, the NC said that in the absence of a concrete plan the statement lacks conviction. “Nothing was said by the HM that would soothe the anger on the ground, and unless and until the Kashmir issue is not seen as a political issue and addressed politically, the recourse to managing the issue militarily or any other way will be nothing but a waste of time,” it said.

Meanwhile, J&K minister for consumer affairs and the public distribution department (CA&PD) Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali on Friday said there was no shortage of essential commodities in the Valley. After reviewing stock and supply positions and the distribution process across the Valley, the minister said 1,295 truckloads of essential commodities have crossed Lower Munda (along the Jammu-Srinagar highway) while there is sufficient stock of LPG for 17 days and petroleum products for one month in the Valley.