It was another day of mayhem in Kashmir on Friday with scores of people injured in confrontations along the streets of Srinagar and at different places in almost all other districts of the Valley, fol
It was another day of mayhem in Kashmir on Friday with scores of people injured in confrontations along the streets of Srinagar and at different places in almost all other districts of the Valley, following pro-freedom processions that were intercepted by the security forces.
Earlier, curfew was re-imposed in many parts of Kashmir — including Srinagar — ahead of Friday congregations, keeping in mind the widespread violence witnessed on Fridays during the past eight weeks.
However, Friday prayers were not allowed in Srinagar’s historic Jamia Masjid and other major mosques across the Valley for the eighth time.
In places where there was no curfew in place, normal life remained paralysed on the 56th day as people religiously obeyed protest calendars issued from time to time by an alliance of key separatist leaders.
The Kashmir Valley is on the boil in the aftermath of the killing of Hizbul-Mujahideen commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani on July 8.
Protests and intense clashes were reported from about a dozen places in Srinagar including Parimpora, Shalteng, Noorbagh, Eidgah, Nallah Mar Road, Soura, Barzulla, Rainawari, Shivpora and outside the summer capital at different places in the districts of Baramulla, Bandipore, Kupwara, Budgam, Shopian, Anantnag, Ganderbal, Pulwama and Kulgam.
In Srinagar, thousands of mourners turned up at the funeral of 12-year-old Danish Sultan Haroo after his body was fished out of River Jhelum. Danish was among a group of four local boys who had jumped in the river on Thursday evening to escape arrest after the CRPF arrived in City’s Parimpora area while a protest was underway.
Security forces fired dozens of teargas canisters to contain protests during and immediately after the funeral, witnesses said. They fired teargas into the funeral procession, alleged the locals.
Parimpora and its neighbourhood witnessed clashes between stone-hurling youth and the security forces throughout the day, witnesses said. Reports received here said that a mob attacked an Army goodwill school in Hajan area of Baramulla, triggering a clash between it and the security forces. Also a Vocational Training Center at Watergam outside the town of Sopore was set ablaze by “unknown persons”, resulting in complete damage to the structure, police said. A report from Jammu said that a shutdown paralysed normal life in Bhaderwah, Kishtwar and Gandoh areas of predominantly Muslim Chenab valley of the region on Friday. The call for the strike had been issued by some local groups to lodge protest over the civilian killings in the Valley and the arrest spree underway in the area.
A statement issued by police here in the evening said that curfew was imposed on Srinagar and in the towns of Anantnag, Pulwama, Kulgam, Shopian and Baramulla from dawn on Friday. It also said that as many as 35 stone pelting incidents were reported from Srinagar, Sopore, Anantnag, Pulwama, Shopian, Baramulla, Bandipora, Kulgam and Kupwara ‘till the filing of this report’. The statement alleged “At these places, after Friday prayers miscreants assembled on the roads and pelted stones on police and security force deployments.”
