Another Srinagar youth was killed and four others wounded when CRPF personnel opened fire to quell a mob which allegedly attacked one of its pillboxes at Noorbagh in central Srinagar on Sunday.
The mob comprised a group of mourners returning from a nearby Muslim cemetery after the burial of 24-year-old Muhammad Rafiq Bangroo, who succumbed in a city hospital late on Saturday night, days after being allegedly beaten up by CRPF men in the neighbouring Safa Kadal area.
After the fresh killing, Srinagar is again tense and reports of clashes between agitating groups of people and policemen are pouring in from different localities. At least two dozen people have been injured in these clashes during which the police and the CRPF burst teargas canisters, swung bamboo sticks and fired rifle shots in the air to quell mobs.
While separatists have alleged that the CRPF personnel opened fire on the mourners without any provocation and termed the incident as yet another instance of “Indian brutality” and called for a protest strike in the Valley on Monday, the authorities said the CRPF did it in self-defence when some protesters tried to force their entry into its pillbox. As the word about the latest killing spread, surging crowds chanting pro-freedom slogans took to the streets at a number of places across Srinagar and soon clashed with riot police, witnesses said. Some parts of the city have been placed under undeclared curfew and police and paramilitary reinforcements fanned out elsewhere to prevent trouble from spreading. In view of heightened tensions, many private schools have been closed till further orders whereas the Kashmir University has postponed examinations scheduled to take place on June 21.
A police handout issued here in the evening said that a violent mob of miscreants pelted stones at the personnel of 161 Battalion of the CRPF at Bakshipora, Noorbagh and at nearby police post. It also attempted to set ablaze a mobile bunker of the CRPF, besides forcing their entry into one of its camps in the area and damaging the property.
“While lathicharge and tear smoke had no effect, the CRPF nafri (men) fired in self-defence resulting into injuries to five persons identified. One of them Javid Ahmad Malla later passed away,” the statement said adding that while the injured were being treated another violent mob attacked policemen at the SMHS hospital resulting in injuries to some of them.