Indian army soldiers were seen patrolling the outskirts of the capital Srinagar as well as other towns Friday. The deployment of army follows the joint strategy worked out at a meeting on Wednesday of the core group held at the corps headquarters here and presided over by the army commander, Lt. Gen N.C. Marwah.

The state director general of police, Kuldeep Khuda, and other senior police and paramilitary officers attended the meeting.

The joint strategy was worked out to counter the call for sit-ins outside the army camps on Sept. 21 given by senior separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani who is spearheading the ‘Quit Kashmir Campaign’.

A senior police officer said troops opened fire as their convoy came under stone pelting in Churpora village of Budgam district in the morning. He said four people were injured. One of them, identified as Fayaz Ahmad Dar, 22, later succumbed to injuries in the hospital.

Thousands of people staged protests against the killing.

In north Kashmir Tappar town situated on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad highway, pro-independence protestors stoned a passing convoy in the morning.

The troops opened fire to quell the protestors resulting in injuries to five people who were evacuated to hospital for treatment where Ghulam Rasool Bhat, 25, succumbed to his injuries despite best efforts of doctors to revive him.

Later in the afternoon, security forces again opened fire in Tapper, injuring eight more protestors who were taken to hospital for treatment. Police also opened fire on a stone-pelting mob that later torched a government building. Three youths were critically injured. One of them, identified as Imtiyaz Ahmad Malla, succumbed to his injuries on way to hospital.

Mobs later torched the house of a local cop in the area.

Protests were held across the valley after Friday prayers with protestors chanting ‘Freedom Freedom’ and ‘Go India, Go Back’. Mobs defied curfew and staged the protests in capital Srinagar and other towns.

Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq in a statement strongly condemned “the collective punishment being inflicted upon the entire population of the valley for pursuing their just cause for the resolution of Kashmir issue.”