SRINAGAR: As many as 50 people including policemen and demonstrators were hurt yesterday when police fired bullets and tear gas to break up hundreds of anti-India protesters in Kashmir, officials and doctors said.
The protesters, chanting “We want freedom” and “Allah is Greatest,” poured into the streets of summer capital Srinagar after Friday prayers, police and witnesses said.
Police fired shots and tear gas shells after baton charge failed to disperse violent demonstrators, they said. Doctors said 21 protesters were hurt, two of them from bullets. A police statement said 29 policemen were also hurt when angry protesters retaliated with stones and bricks. A committee of separatists and trade unions spearheading recent anti-India demonstrations in the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley had called upon the residents to stage protests after Friday prayers.
Police also opened fire to quell violence in the chronic trouble spot of Rajouri Kadal in old city late yesterday afternoon, seriously injuring an 18-year-old youth and a woman. The firing followed pitched battles between the protesters who threw rocks and bricks at the shield wielding and steel helmeted joint contingents of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and state police.
Initially, the security forces shelled tear smoke and used baton charges repeatedly to disperse the protesters shouting pro-freedom slogans. The trouble later spread to other old city areas with the police and CRPF having a difficult time in defusing the surcharged situation.
In the Maisuma locality of uptown Srinagar, protests erupted again after the conclusion of the Friday prayers with youth indulging in sloganeering and heavy stone pelting, prompting police to respond with tear smoke and cane charge.
