Three killed in firing by security forces

SRINAGAR: Three persons were killed and 70 injured on Monday as police fired to quell violent protesters in curfew-bound Kashmir Valley where several separatists leaders were arrested to thwart a planned rally here.
 
Two youths-- Showkat Ahmad Khanday and Basit Bashir-- were killed in firing by security personnel to disperse stone-pelting mobs which defied curfew at Narbal on the outskirts of the city and in Pulwama town respectively, official sources said.
 
Four persons with bullet injuries were admitted to Pulwama district hospital, they said.
       
At Chootipora village in Kupwara district, an 18-year-old girl identified as Fehmeeda was killed when a bullet hit her during police firing on violent protesters, the sources said, adding the incident was being investigated.
       
With the death of three persons, the toll in the violence has risen to four with at least 110 injured since Sunday when curfew was clamped in all 10 districts of the Valley to thwart the march by separatists to Lal Chowk in the heart of Srinagar.
       
While separatist leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq were arrested from their residences late on Sunday night, JKLF leader Mohammad Yasin Malik was taken into custody this morning as he tried to defy curfew and move to
Lal Chowk, the sources said.
        
Protesting against the "highhandedness" of security forces, the Coordination Committee of separatists gave a call for a "complete shutdown" on Tuesday.