In Sopore, trouble started when police and paramilitary forces, deployed in strength, prevented groups of youth from taking out processions in the town, 55 kms from here, around noon, official sources said.
At least 15 persons including three policemen were injured in clashes between stone pelting youth and law enforcing agencies here and in Sopore town of north Kashmir as the valley observed a general strike called by hardline faction of Hurriyat Conference against conviction of six Kashmiris by a Delhi court in the 1996 Lajpat Nagar blast.
In Sopore, trouble started when police and paramilitary forces, deployed in strength, prevented groups of youth from taking out processions in the town, 55 kms from here, around noon, official sources said.
The youth pelted stones at police and paramilitary forces who retaliated using tear smoke shells, they said.
As a result of the clashes, which continued till late in the afternoon, two policemen and eight civilians were injured, they said.
In Srinagar, stones were pelted at police and CRPF personnel. While police fired dozens of tear smoke shells, locals pelted stones at them resulting in injuries to a constable and four civilians, they said.
Life across Kashmir valley was paralysed in view of the strike. While shops and business establishments remained closed in rest of the valley, authorities imposed restrictions on movement of the people in downtown as a precautionary measure, officials said.
Police and paramilitary troops sealed the old city and put up barbed wire on main roads to prevent people from moving on the streets.
The hardline faction of Hurriyat headed by Syed Ali Shah Geelani gave the strike call to protest against the conviction of Hurriyat leader Farida Behanji and five others in the blast case that killed 13 persons and left 38 injured on May 21, 1996.
"The Indian judiciary is a playing partisan and biased role. Kashmiri people are being targeted here, while those accused of Gujarat riots are roaming free," Geelani alleged in a statement.
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