Over 50 arrested for stone-pelting after Afzal`s hanging

Srinagar: Over 50 youths have been arrested for allegedly being involved in stone-pelting during protests that rocked parts of the Kashmir Valley following execution of Parliament attack convict Mohammad Afzal Guru.

"Police have arrested 53 persons from different districts of the Valley on the charges of stone-pelting and creating trouble after Guru`s hanging," a police spokesman said. Protests were held at many places across Kashmir even after authorities imposed curfew in the Valley after Guru was hanged in Tihar Jail in Delhi on February 9. Of the 53 youths nabbed during protests, 13 were arrested from Srinagar, six from Budgam in central Kashmir while 23 held from north Kashmir, which includes eight from Baramulla and 15 from Sopore, he said. In south Kashmir`s Anantnag district, police arrested eight youths while three nabbed from Pulwama, he added. Meanwhile, police refuted the reports of a police post being torched by protestors in north Kashmir`s Bandipora district. "The reports about torching of a police post in Paribal Aaloosa area of Bandipora are factually incorrect. Some miscreants had attacked the post, but police exercised maximum restraint and repulsed them. There was however, some minor damage to the post," the spokesman said. PTI