SRINAGAR: Situation in Kashmir valley worsened on the fourth day of the popular agitation against the allotment of forest land to a Hindu board by the state government with violent demonstrations dominating the scene.
Tens of thousands of Kashmiris filled the streets for a fourth day of protests yesterday, after police killings during earlier demonstrations inflamed their anger over the transfer of land to a Hindu shrine in this Muslim-majority region.
Protesters clashed with riot police in several parts of Srinagar, the main city of India’s portion of Kashmir. Police responded to rock-throwers by firing live ammunition and tear gas into the air in an attempt to disperse the mobs, said police officer Sajjad Ahmed.
More than 20,000 people were protesting in towns across the Himalayan state, Ahmed said, and thousands of police and paramilitary soldiers were spread out to control the angry mobs.
The protests against the land allotment to Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB), which overlooks the two-month long annual Hindu pilgrimage to the Himalayan cave shrine at 3,888 meters above sea level, have resulted in the death of three persons and injuries to scores of others.
Paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers yesterday afternoon opened fire at protesters in Kawdara locality of summer capital resulting in serious injuries to two civilians.
Slogan shouting protesters clashed with police and paramilitary CRPF across Srinagar and other major and minor valley towns which left over 40 people wounded.
