At least eight persons, including two policemen were injured as groups of youth, shouting anti-election slogans, clashed with police.
At least eight persons, including two policemen, were injured on Friday as groups of youth, shouting anti-election slogans, clashed with police and paramilitary forces at several places in Srinagar and Baramulla districts.
Clashes broke out at Nawakadal, Kawdara, Rajouri Kadal in downtown Srinagar and Baramulla district headquarters shortly after Friday prayers, disrupting normal life, officials said.
Raising "anti-election" slogans, hundreds of people took to streets at these places and tried to stage rallies in support of the poll boycott call given by hardline separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani and United Jehad Council (UJC), an amalgam of over a dozen militant outfits active in the state, they said.
However, they were stopped by the police and asked to disperse but turned violent and resorted to stone-pelting. Police fired teargas and used batons to restore law and order.
While three persons, including two policemen, were injured in the clashes in interior Srinagar, five others were injured in Baramulla, they said.
At Nawakadal, the protesters also made a bonfire of an effigy of acting chairman of Hurriyat Conference Maulana Mohammad Abbas Ansari for his remarks against UJC chairman Syed Salahuddin.
Ansari had lashed out at UJC for asking people of Jammu and Kashmir to boycott the Lok Sabha elections.
"We do not recognise UJC led by Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin. They are carrying swords. We do not accept diktats," Ansari had said and added that the militant amalgam was "confused".
A group of youth also shouted slogans in favour of "poll boycott" at Maisuma near the headquarters of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) in the heart of the city but were chased away by police.
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