SRINAGAR: Indian Kashmir’s capital city of Srinagar was hit by violent clashes between the protesters and paramilitary forces yet again yesterday even as entire Kashmir Valley remained shut on a call by the separatist Coordination Committee spearheading the current agitation against the Indian rule.
The committee comprises representatives of the separatist organizations, government employees, local traders and Kashmir Bar Association.
“Protest against Indian occupation peacefully,” hard-line separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, appealed to people in a statement.
“We are taking forward the unfulfilled mission of thousands of martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the noble cause of freedom,” his statement said.
But around 35 people were injured in the dingdong battles in the downtown Nowhatta locality of Srinagar, which was the scene of violence Friday as well. Police had to open fire to quell violence after tear-gassing and repeated baton-charges didn’t yield the desired results.
A police spokesman said one civilian suffered rubber bullet injury while 13 others were injured in the stone pelting and baton charges. On the side of the police and paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) 17 were injured in yesterday’s clashes in the locality.
However, no report of violence was received from any place in the valley where a complete shutdown was observed yesterday. Roads were deserted as people preferred to stay indoors with no public transport plying on the roads here which were heavily patrolled by paramilitary forces. Skeletal private transport, however, plied on the city roads here.
Meanwhile, over 30 people were injured yesterday as protesters clashed with paramilitary forces in Jammu city, where violence erupted again on refusal by the state authorities to allow Amarnath Yatra Sangharsh Samiti (AYSS) to use a government auditorium.
The AYSS says it had booked government-owned “Abhinav theater” for a function to compensate the bereaved Hindu families which lost their kin during the two-month-long Jammu agitation for restoration of land to Sri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB).
The Samiti activists yesterday morning tried to force their entry inside the theater, prompting police to respond by firing warning shots, tear gas and baton charges.
Samiti convener, Leela Karan Sharma, has threatened to relaunch the suspended agitation in Jammu, if the government fails to fulfill the promises made in the agreement between the AYSS and government panel on Aug. 31.
The Samiti has called for a two-day strike against the government’s refusal to allow the auditorium to be used for yesterday’s function.
The mass protests in the state comes at a time when violence involving Indian troops and separatist guerrillas has declined significantly after India and Pakistan, who have fought wars over the region, began a slow-moving peace process in 2004. But people are still killed in shootouts and occasional explosions.
