Kashmir Valley was shut on Monday to mourn and protest the June 11 killing of a Srinagar student in police action against a group of stone-pelting anti-India protesters which he reportedly was not a part of. During the strike called by separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, irate mobs clashed with police and CRPF at more than a dozen places in summer capital Srinagar and in the towns of Sopore and Anantnag leaving scores injured.
Major portions of Srinagar continued to reel under a curfew, not officially acknowledged whereas shops and other business and educational institutions elsewhere in and outside the city remained closed and the transport was off the roads.
Mr Geelani who has been arrested had also asked the people to march towards the house of the slain teenager Tufail Ahmed Mattoo’s home at Sayeda Kadal to express solidarity with his parents.
Few including Dukhtaran-e-Milliat chief Sayeda Aasiya Andrabi and Mr Geelani’s aide Peer Saifullah could make it because of strict security restrictions in force in the town whereas most separatist politicians were placed under house arrest ahead of the planned protests. Among them is chief Muslim cleric and leader of his faction of Hurriyat Conference Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.
Officials said that several policemen including those from the CRPF sustained injuries in stone-pelting incidents reported from Hydepora, Tengpora, Bemina, Parimpora, Chattabal, Safa Kadal, Batamaloo, Sayeda Kadal and Seki Dafar localities.
Two of the CRPF personnel constables Uttam Singh and Warun Kumar have been admitted to a hospital after being seriously injured.
Police and CRPF swung bamboo sticks and fired teargas canisters and occasionally returned stones to quell protesters in these areas. Similar incidents were reported from southern Anantnag and north-western Sopore.