Indo-asian news service
Srinagar, Sept 13: Three people died and many were injured as clashes between protesters and security forces in parts of the troubled Kashmir Valley marred an Eid-al-Adha celebrated under curfew for the first time in over two decades.
With the city under a total clampdown, a separatist call for a march to the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) also proved a non-starter.
All roads leading to the UNMOGIP office in the high-security Sonwar locality here had heavy deployment of police and paramilitary forces who blocked all vehicles and even prevented pedestrian movement.
Two of the dead were protesters killed in clashes with security forces — one each in Shopian and Bandipora districts — while one person in a mosque died, apparently of heart attack, after a teargas shell crashed into the shrine at Awantipora in Pulwama district.
Shahid Ahmed, 24, was killed in Shopian when a mob defied curfew and began heavy stone-pelting at security forces. The forces retaliated with tear gas and pellets, resulting in Shahid’s death. Ten others were also injured in the street fighting.
Jallaluddin, 45, died of heart attack when a teargas shell fired at protesters outside abruptly dropped into the Awantipora mosque where he was. Another youth, Murtaza, 25, was earlier killed in clashes in Bandipora. Clashes were also reported from Batamaloo area in Srinagar.
With policeman Rouf Ahmed, who was injured in a gunfight in Nowhatta town August 15, succumbing Tuesday, the toll in the ongoing unrest sparked by the July 8 killing of Hizbul commander Burhan Wani has climbed to 86, according to police records. Thousands have been injured in the violence.
Authorities said Monday that the curfew had been ordered across all 10 districts of the valley on Eid as they had received intelligence inputs that separatists had planned large-scale violence after prayers in the city.
Eid congregations were disallowed in Srinagar for the first time since the early 1990s when the separatists began their armed struggle. People could offer prayers only in mosques.
The faithful offered Eid prayers in small groups in mosques in towns and villages in the valley. There were no visible celebrations in Srinagar as people preferred to be indoors fearing clashes and violence.
An Eid congregation at a shrine in Sonwar was disallowed as authorities feared that devotees might march to the nearby UN office.
Despite its limited mandate, it has become customary for separatists to hand over memoranda to officials posted at UNMOGIP.
The separatist leaders — under detention since the ongoing unrest that started a day after Burhan Wani’s killing — had announced the march to coincide with the opening of the 71st session of the UN General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York Tuesday.
| Sharif dedicates Eid to ‘sacrifices’ of Kashmiris Lahore: Needling India yet again, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif Tuesday dedicated Ei-dul Azha to the “supreme sacrifices” of Kashmiris and said their voices cannot be “suppressed through force”. “We cannot ignore sacrifices of Kashmiris. They will succeed through their sacrifices. We dedicate this Eid to the supreme sacrifices of Kashmiri people and we will continue doing so till the Kashmir issue is not resolved according to their (Kashmiri people) wishes,” Sharif said in his message on the occasion of Eid-ul Azha. “Kashmiri people have sacrificed their third generation in their struggle to get freedom from India. They are struggling for their right to self- determination and facing Indian atrocities. Their voice cannot be suppressed through force,” he said. |
