13 people injured in police-protester clashes in Kashmir

SRINAGAR - Thirteen people, among them seven policemen, were injured in daylong clashes between stone pelting young men and police across the Kashmir Valley Monday even as life remained affected by a shutdown called by the local bar association.

The shutdown was called against what the bar association termed “the collapse of judiciary, maltreatment meted out to political prisoners, and veiled attempts to change the demographic position and identity of the state”.

The shutdown call was supported by both the hardline and the moderate groups of the Hurriyat Conference headed by Syed Ali Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq respectively.

Police used batons and fired tear smoke shells to disperse the stone-pelting mobs at Baramulla, Sopore and a few places in Srinagar.

Three policemen were injured in clashes between the stone pelting mobs and police in Baramulla town, while two policemen sustained injuries in Sopore town.

A policeman identified as Mushtaq Ahmad sustained serious injuries when an angry mob pelted stones at the police and the passing traffic in Parimpora area of Srinagar. He was taken to hospital for treatment.

Another policemen sustained minor injuries in clashes with the stone pelting youth in old city area of the city.

Six stone pelting protesters also sustained minor injuries during these clashes, police said.

Authorities imposed restrictions in five police stations of Khanyar, Rainawari, Nowhatta, S.R. Gunj and Safa Kadal in Srinagar and heavy deployment of police and paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) was made in the old city areas to quell any protests there.

“No civilian sustained any serious injuries during the clashes between the stone pelting youth and the police. However, one policeman was seriously injured in Parimpora area of the city”, a senior police officer said here.

Meanwhile, the civil secretariat re-opened in summer capital Srinagar after a six monthly sojourn in winter capital Jammu.

All top offices including those of the chief minister, his cabinet colleagues, senior bureaucrats and state level heads of departments follow a tradition left behind by the erstwhile Dogra kings of rotating the seat of governance on a half-yearly basis between Jammu city and Srinagar.