One of the injured was hit by a bullet allegedly fired by CRPF personnel to disperse a group of protestors who had gathered on the main road at Noushehra in Srinagar.
At least eight persons, including two policemen and a journalist, were today injured as clashes marked the separatist-sponsored strike in the Kashmir valley to protest the verdict of a Delhi court which awarded death penalty to two Kashmiris and another person in the Lajpat Nagar blast case.
One of the injured Manzoor Ahmad Mir was hit by a bullet allegedly fired by CRPF personnel to disperse a group of protestors who had gathered on the main road at Noushehra in Srinagar, official sources said.
Locals alleged that CRPF personnel opened fire without any provocation. However, a police officer said the jawans opened fire in self-defence after a mob began pelting stones.
Police burst tear gas shells and used batons to disperse stone-pelting mobs at Maisuma, Rainawari and Batmaloo in the city and in Baramulla in north Kashmir.
Sources said adding seven persons, including two policemen and a journalist, were injured in the clashes.
Police also used batons to chase away protestors at various other places including Sopore, Anantnag, Ganderbal, Shopian and Pulwama.
The clashes broke out shortly after Friday prayers despite authorities strictly enforcing prohibitory orders in most parts of downtown Srinagar, placing Hurriyat conference chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq under house arrest and detaining nearly a dozen other separatists including JKLF chairman Mohammad Yaseen Malik.
A Delhi court yesterday had awarded death penalty to three men and rigorous life imprisonment to one, saying their "dastardly" act, which had claimed 13 lives, fell under the "rarest of rare" category.
The Hurriyat conference and other separatist groups had called for a complete shutdown to protest the verdict.
They alleged the court had a "biased approach" towards the people of Kashmir.
Shops and business establishments remained closed and traffic remained off the roads while police and paramilitary troops sealed the old city, officials said.
In view of the heavy deployment of security personnel, no prayers could be offered at various mosques in the interior city, including Jamia Masjid.
Hurriyat conference activists Mukhtar Ahmad Waza and Zaffar Akbar Bhat were also detained by the police when they tried to take out protest marches in Anantnag and Channapora in Srinagar, sources said.
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