SRINAGAR: Violent clashes were witnessed on Friday in parts of Indian-held Kashmir (IHK), where emotions were running high against the murder of three civilians by Indian security forces earlier this week.
Authorities have placed Hurriyat leaders Syed Ali Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq under house arrest, while the Liberation Front chief, Yasin Malik, has been put in prison to foil protests planned on Friday against the killings.
Although there was no curfew in place, forces in riot gear carrying automatic weapons were deployed in strength in ‘sensitive’ areas. Parts of central Kashmir, where the civilians were killed on Tuesday, observed a shutdown on the fourth consecutive day, while schools and government institutions also remained closed.
Clashes between protesters and Indian forces were reported after Friday prayers in many parts of the valley, including Srinagar city, where a local photojournalist Abid Bhat suffered injuries while covering clashes in downtown. Clashes were also reported in Maisuma, the bastion of Malik.
Emotional scenes were witnessed in Chadoora village, the centre stage of the gunfight earlier this week that left three civilian youths and a rebel dead, when the father of Zahid Rashid Ganai, one of the deceased youngsters, fainted during fateh at his son’s grave.
“He was hospitalised after he passed out. Later in the evening he was discharged. His two sisters have also been brought here with complaints of hallucination. Zahid was their only brother. The family is devastated,” a doctor who attended them told Daily Times.
Earlier, clashes broke out in Srinagar and parts of south Kashmir, including the home constituency of the state’s chief minister, Mehbooba Mufti, where young boys pelted government forces with stones amid pro-freedom and anti-India slogans.
In Pulwama, forces resorted to aerial firing to disperse the protesters.
Post-Friday prayers, protests were also witnessed in Tral, the hometown of slain separatist leader Burhan Wani, against the civilian killings. Residents alleged that forces ransacked their homes and also beat up civilians, a charge denied by the local police. “We had just returned after offering prayers when forces, chasing some youths, resorted to vandalism and also assaulted some residents and shopkeepers,” said a resident, requesting anonymity for fear of reprisal by forces.
In New Delhi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh reiterated his resolve to defeat the forces of “secession” while blaming Pakistan for the prevailing crisis in IHK, claiming that Pakistan-based groups were fomenting trouble in Jammu and Kashmir.
Raids are being carried out in different parts of Kashmir to arrest protesters and Hurriyat leaders and activists ahead of the upcoming by-polls on two Indian parliament seats which have fallen vacant due to the resignation of ruling Peoples Democratic Party members, one of whom, Tariq Karra, joined the opposition Congress party.
“More than four dozen activists and leaders… have been detained for disturbing law and order in the valley. Raids are underway and more arrests will be made in the coming days,” a senior Indian police officer said. The polls are scheduled for April 9 and April 12.
