Srinagar: A fresh wave of protests in Kashmir
Valley today claimed seven lives and left 250 injured as
police opened fire to disperse rampaging mobs who indulged in
stone-pelting, attacked government buildings and looted
weapons from police.
Defying curfew, stone-pelting protesters took to streets
in several places and attacked police stations and CRPF camps
in the Valley where 22 people have been killed and over 500
injured, including 200 security force personnel, in violence
since last Friday.
One protester was killed in police firing after agitators
attacked a police post and attempted to set it afire and
another perished late tonight in Kulgam district. In adjacent
Sangam in Anantnag district, one person was killed when CRFP
personnel retaliated to heavy stone throwing at their camp,
police said, adding another person died in a stampede
following the firing.
At Kakpora, in south Kashmir`s Pulwama district, police
opened fire on a group of stone-pelting protesters who were
indulging in ransacking, killing one of them.
One person was killed in Kralpora in north Kashmir`s
Kupwara district when police fired on a mob which looted arms
from a police post. The agitators managed to flee with four
rifles.
A boy, injured in violence in Batmaloo district this
afternoon, succumbed in the evening, police said.
Protesters this afternoon set afire all the four
buildings in a police station at Rajpura in Pulwama district
injuring 20 people.
"Rampaging mobs violated curfew restrictions at various
places in Kakapora, Pulwama, Budgam, Anantnag, Kulgam and
Kupwara destroying police and public properties," police
department said in a statement.
Earlier in the day, protesters set afire two government
offices and a railway structure in central Budgam district.
Three protesters were injured there as police tried to contain
the violence.
Three people were injured in firing in Bemina on the
outskirts of Srinagar.
A person identified as Tariq Ahmed, who was hit by a
teargas shell three days back in Bijbehara in south Kashmir,
succumbed to his injuries in a hospital here.
Meanwhile, the Centre today rallied behind Jammu and
Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in handling the situation
in the Kashmir Valley and indicated it is committed to
carrying out political initiatives for which peace is a
prerequisite.
Arriving in New Delhi this morning, Omar called on Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh who chaired a high-level meeting to
discuss the current unrest in the Valley and find an
administrative and political way out.
He briefed the meeting in which all the members of the
Cabinet Committee of Security (CCS) including Finance Minister
Pranab Mukherjee, Home Minister P Chidambaram, Defence
Minister A K Antony and External Affairs Minister S M Krishna
were present on the latest turn of events in Kashmir which
witnessed a spurt in violence.
PTI
