SRINAGAR: Two persons were killed and over 50 others including the pro-Independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman wounded as valley-wide protests broke a three-day lull in the demonstrations that rocked Kashmir in past one month.
Tens of thousands of Muslim protesters gathered for pro-independence rallies across Indian-controlled Kashmir yesterday, leading to scattered clashes with police that left at least one dead and dozens injured.
As the Friday prayers ended, people spilled out of various mosques and on the streets to stage protests shouting pro-freedom slogans.
Separatist leaders called on Muslims across the restive Himalayan region to protest Indian rule after Friday prayers, but police officials clamped down on the demonstrations because they violated an order barring the assembly of more than five people, said senior police official B. Srinivas. He said they had to use tear gas and batons and, in at least one town, live ammunition to disperse the crowds.
In Shopian, a town about 60 kilometers south of Srinagar, the region’s biggest city, one protester was killed and 13 injured after police opened fire on protesters, according to doctors and police officials. Mohammed Yousuf, a doctor in Shopian’s main hospital, said seven of the injured were in critical condition.
In Srinagar, a prominent separatist leader, Mohammed Yasin Malik, was injured after police swung batons and fired tear gas at the crowd, said Altaf Khan, a spokesman for Malik’s group, the Jammu-Kashmir Liberation Front.
It was not immediately clear how Malik was injured, but he was rushed to a hospital where he was being examined, said Wasim Qureshi, the medical superintendent of Sri Maharaja Harish Singh in Srinagar.
Dozens of others also sustained injuries, Khan said. “Oppressors, get out of Kashmir,” shouted protesters, led by senior separatist leader Yasin Malik, in the heart of Srinagar.
“Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest), we will break the chains,” Malik cried before police fired tear gas shells.
The protests were organized by several prominent separatist leaders, including Malik, who spearheaded two months of angry demonstrations this summer that were some of the biggest anti-India protests in decades.
