Toll in Kashmir violence rises to four

SRINAGAR - The toll in Friday’s violence in the Kashmir Valley rose to four after another youth succumbed to his injuries here, police said Saturday.

“Nazir Ahmad Mir, 23, who was critically injured in yesterday’s (Friday’s) violence in north Kashmir’s Pattan town died in hospital late at night,” a senior police officer here said.

“A large mob of unruly protesters set ablaze the Pattan police station after baton charges and repeated tear smoke shelling by security forces failed to quell them. The mob later attacked the policemen posted at the police station who opened fire in self-defence, resulting in critical bullet injuries to four protesters.”

“Two of the critically wounded protesters - Adil Sheikh, 14, of Palhalan village and Nazir Ahmad Mir of Sheeri village - died in hospital,” the police officer said.

“Two other protesters, who sustained critical bullet wounds, are being treated in the hospital,” the officer added.

The mobs had felled trees to block the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad highway so that reinforcements could not reach Pattan town, about 30 km from here, on the highway in Baramulla district.

Mobs also ransacked the Potkhah police post near Sopore town besides torching two police buses outside the post and railway protection force hutments. The railway station was also ransacked there.

Two people died in Amargarh area of Sopore town earlier Friday in firing by security forces when unruly mobs damaged a portion of rail track there.

Over 50 people, including protesters and security men, were injured in large scale violence across the valley.

According to doctors at the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences Soura (SKIMS), condition of three people admitted in the hospital with gunshot wounds was critical.

Authorities have clamped a valley wide curfew Saturday to prevent violence in the wake of Friday’s incidents in Srinagar, Sopore and Pattan.