Friday, Mar 29, 2024 | Last Update : 12:06 PM IST

  India   Separatists held, march foiled

Separatists held, march foiled

| YUSUF JAMEEL
Published : Aug 27, 2016, 6:59 am IST
Updated : Aug 27, 2016, 6:59 am IST

A teenager was killed and several other protesters were injured when the CRPF fired live ammunition to quell a stone-throwing mob at Nikis in Jammu and Kashmir’s southern Pulwama district where a mass

Relatives carry the body of the teenager, Shakeel Ahmed Ganai, killed in clashes in south Pulwama district. (Photo: H.U. Naqash)
 Relatives carry the body of the teenager, Shakeel Ahmed Ganai, killed in clashes in south Pulwama district. (Photo: H.U. Naqash)

A teenager was killed and several other protesters were injured when the CRPF fired live ammunition to quell a stone-throwing mob at Nikis in Jammu and Kashmir’s southern Pulwama district where a massive protest erupted after Friday prayers. Dozens others have been injured in clashes during similar confrontations at 33 other places across the Valley, reports received here said.

The clashes occurred on a day when chief minister Mehbooba Mufti flew to Delhi where she is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday morning to discuss the prevailing situation in the Valley. Sources in the ruling PDP here said that the chief minister is under tremendous pressure to take more stringent measures to suppress the unrest and that she would share her thoughts with the PM also give details about the measures taken so far or are in the pipeline which includes detaining as many as 169 activists under the state’s stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) to contain the situation.

Police sources and witnesses said that the CRPF fired teargas canisters and pellet guns to quell protesters who turned violent at Nikis, about 42 km from here, on Friday afternoon. When it failed to put a stop to stone-pelting, th-ey opened fire killing teenager Shakeel Ahm-ed Ganai. Doctors said a bullet had pierced his heart after hitting him in scapula. “He had alr-eady died when brought here,” said a doctor. Sev-eral others were injured and some of them received multiple pellet wounds, witnesses and hospital sources said.

With the latest fatal injury, the death toll in the seven-week-old unrest in the Valley triggered by the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen’s Internet-savvy poster boy Burhan Muzaffar Wani on July 8 has risen to 69. These deaths took place in security forces’ firings and other actions which also left more than 6,000 people injured. Two policemen also died and, as was announced by Union home minister Rajnath Singh here on Thursday, 4,000-4,500 security personnel have been injured in mob violence.

Earlier, the police foiled separatists-called “aazadi march” on Srinagar’s Eidgah grounds by imposing curfew in various towns of the Valley and enforcing security restrictions elsewhere. Key separatist leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq were arrested as they came out of their besieged houses in Srinagar’s Hyderpora and Nigeen areas, resp-ectively, and began marching towards Eid-gah, witnesses said.

Friday congregations were not allowed at the Valley’s main mosques, including Srinagar’s historic Grand Mosque. However, the Friday namaz was offered in locality mosques and after the prayers, people took to the streets at many places to chant pro-freedom slogans and soon clashed with the security forces. Clashes and stone-pelting incidents were underway in at least 13 places across the Valley as reports last came in.

Meanwhile, the police has appealed the people to stay away from processions to avoid loss of life or injury. In a statement here, it said, “It has been observed that militants make their presence at public protests and on many occasions have hurled grenades and open fire. In one such incident in Pulwama on August 24, 17 police and other security force personnel were injured and were hospitalised.” The statement added that such incidents have taken place earlier Damhal Hanjipora in Kulgam district and in neighbouring Shopian. “The security forces have exercised maximum restraint and not retaliated to avoid civilian casualties,” the statement concluded. A report from Tral, the hometown of Wani, said that the Army had to call off the operation it had launched in the region’s Noorpora area earlier following reports about the presence of militants there. The surging crowds chanting pro-freedom slogans hurled rocks at the soldiers and the police which was part of the operation fired teargas canister to disperse them. But the police action only led to escalation in the situation and, in the melee, the militants escaped the dragnet, report said adding that the Army then decided to withdraw.

Location: India, Jammu and Kashmir, Srinagar