Curfew was clamped in Srinagar after the protests, which started on Monday, spilled over to Tuesday and claimed four more civilians, including a 25-year-old woman, and left more than 70 injured.
A fresh wave of protests kept Srinagar on the boil on Tuesday, throwing the biggest challenge so far to chief minister Omar Abdullah’s 18-month old government in the restive Jammu and Kashmir.
Curfew was clamped in Srinagar after the protests, which started on Monday, spilled over to Tuesday and claimed four more civilians, including a 25-year-old woman, and left more than 70 injured. The protests were marked by heavy stone-pelting on security personnel and government offices.
Eyewitnesses said the second round of protests took off after the body of a class XI student, Muzaffar Ahmad, was fished out of a stream in the morning. He drowned on Monday while the security forces were chasing a group of people who allegedly pelted stones on the car of a minister at Tengpora-Batamaloo.
People assembled in large numbers and started protesting as Ahmad’s body was taken out.
A large posse of police and paramilitary forces immediately swung into action and did not allow the people to stage a march. The irate crowd started pelting stones on the police, which opened fire on the mob leaving another civilian Fayaz Ahmad dead.
The police said as the protests spread to nearby areas, the security forces chased the crowds and lobbed smoke shells to restore order. They said they fired in the air and one of the stray bullets hit a woman in her house at Lachmanpora-Batamaloo.
She was rushed to the hospital where she succumbed to her wounds. Identified as Fancy, 25, she is the first woman to have died in the ongoing agitation since June 11. The toll in the fresh wave of violence has touched 14.
Thousands of people took to the streets and protested against the killings. People burnt tyres on roads and raised pro-freedom slogans. They erected barricades to restrict traffic movement. Several vehicles were also burnt by the protestors.
Additional forces were mobilised which lobbed smoke shells on stone pelting mobs in different areas across the city. Many people are said to have been injured in the fresh violence.
“A youth died by drowning and another died in firing. A woman was hit by a stray bullet and died,” said Farooq Ahmad, inspector general of police, Kashmir range.
Moderate Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq held a sit-in at Rajouri Kadal before leading a procession demanding rolling back of special powers and rasiing pro-freedom slogans.
The fresh deaths have triggered a chain reaction with Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) charging the government with inciting people.
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