One killed, 54 hurt in fresh J&K violence

A 22-year-old youth was killed when the Army opened fire on a group of protesters who all-egedly hurled stones at its vehicles in Nadihal village of Jammu and Kashmir’s north-western Baramulla district on Friday, police officials said.

Elsewhere in the Vall-ey, more than 50 protesters and four security personnel were injured in renewed clashes even as seven police station areas of Srinagar remained under curfew, whereas strict security restrictions were being enforced in some other towns of the Valley.

Officials said the Army opened fire on a group of protesters in Nadihal, resulting in the death of 22-year-old Waseem Ahmed Lone. A report said that the critically injured youth was rushed to a hospital in Baramulla, but he died on the way. With this killing, the death toll in security forces’ firings and other actions during the 11-week-old unrest in the Valley has risen to 88. While the officials said that the troops were forced to open fire as the vehicles they were travelling in through the village came under heavy stone-pelting, the locals alleged that the youth, who sustained fatal injury in the shooting, was working in a nearby paddy field and was not part of any protest. They also claimed that no stone-pelting incident took place in the village and that a group of youth and teenagers was chanting pro-freedom slogans when a small convoy of the Army passed by and a soldier on board one of the vehicles opened fire.

Protests and clashes were reported also from some Srinagar areas, including Barzulla and Kokernag in Anantnag district, Charar-e-Sharief in Budgam, Palhalan in Baramulla and Bandipore in Bandipore district, leaving over 50 injured. The Valley remained shut for the 77th consecutive day on Friday as authorities imposed restrictions in Srinagar city.