The death toll in security forces firing and beating in weeks of protests in Jammu and Kashmir rose to 108 on Sunday with the death of a young woman in security forces’ firing in southern Sopore town and three more youths succumbed to injuries in Srinagar hospitals. Meanwhile, after a few hours of relaxation in round-the-clock curfew for the first time in seven days on Saturday, authorities once again enforced strict curfew in almost all major cities and towns of the Valley, including summer capital Srinagar on Sunday.
The strict restrictions were in place that even curfew passes issued to people, including mediapersons were not honoured by the police and CRPF dotting the streets. Officials justifying the curfews and other restrictions said these were necessary to protect life and property of the people and avoid more bloodshed as Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani “continues to instigate the people to violence.”
However, the octogenarian leader had while announcing a fresh calendar of protests and strikes said last week that Sunday (September 19) would be a working day. He has also formally withdrawn the call to the people to stage protest sit-ins in front of Army camps on September 21 and has, instead asked them to protest at tehsil and district headquarters and send emails to the Army seeking their return from Kashmir.
According to a police spokesman, curfew continued to be in force in 31 towns across the Valley on Sunday and that the day passed off peacefully. However, tensions only heightened further following three persons shot by the security forces while quelling freedom protests and rock-hurling mobs died of their wounds overnight.
Twenty two-year-old Mubeena Akhtar, a bachelor of education student, was wounded when hit by a stray bullet allegedly fired by the security forces to quell a rock-throwing mob at Sopore, 48-km from here, on Sunday evening, injuring her seriously. She was standing in the lawns of her house when hit, said the family “She bled to death because while being taken to a Srinagar hospital, our car was stopped by the security forces enforcing curfew at 10 places and when we finally reached here she was declared brought dead,” claimed a relative.
Earlier, Bilal Ahmed Najar, who had sustained spinal cord injury on Saturday when the police and the CRPF fired on the funeral of Raju Nath, a teenager from southern Anantnag, succumbed to his injuries at SMHS hospital. Shabir Ahmed Dar, 22, who was injured during protests on August 8 on Srinagar-Jammu highway near Sangam also succumbed to his injuries. The third dead person has been identified as Muhammad Amin Ganai of Tappar, Pattan in northwestern Baramulla district.
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Press Guild hits out at media ban
CORRESPONDENT
SRINAGAR
Press Guild of Kashmir has strongly condemned the “ban” imposed by the government on the publication of Kashmir-based newspapers and other media institutions. At an emergency meeting held on Sunday, with its chairman and senior editor Bashir Ahmad Bashir in chair, the PGK deplored the government action “creating a situation in which the newspaper publication has been put to halt” from September 13-18.”