Separatists’ strike cripples life in Valley
A day after a busy working Sunday, normal life was crippled again across the Valley following a call for general strike from the separatists and imposition of curfew-like restrictions in volatile downtown Srinagar and some other areas to thwart protests.
In clashes between stone-throwing crowds and policemen, over a dozen persons were injured, including a police officer, on Monday. A vehicle carrying Amarnath pilgrims was caught in stone-pelting on policemen by a mob at Pampore along the Srinagar-Jammu highway injuring a woman passenger and her 7-year-old daughter, police said adding that the local station house officer also sustained injuries in the incident. At Rambagh, on the road to Srinagar airport, police swung bamboo sticks to chase away a group of women who attacked running auto-rickshaws and some private cars to force the shutdown completely.
The latest calendar of protests as part of its “Quit Jammu and Kashmir” campaign, the Hurriyat Conference faction led by jailed separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani has called for strike and protests for five days during the week beginning on Monday. The only two days exempted are Tuesday and Saturday.
The death of a Kashmiri youth in police custody in Panzla area outside north-western town of Baramulla and mysterious death of a Srinagar resident have sparked off fresh trouble in parts of the Valley and the authorities on Monday imposed curfew-like restrictions in some areas as a preventive measure.
Police officials insist that Tariq Ahmed Dar was a Lashkar-e-Tayyaba militant, involved in shooting a youth in Panzla, a village outside Baramulla town last week who after his arrest committed suicide inside police lock up on Saturday night.
But his family and other residents allege the youth was tortured to death in police custody and claimed that his body had visible torture marks on it. The autopsy report is awaited and, meanwhile, the authorities have ordered a judicial probe into the incident.
But the death seen as extrajudicial murder by the people has sparked off fresh tensions across Kashmir Valley where the government and the security forces are already facing a tough situation set off by weeks of protests and unrest during which nearly twenty persons were killed in police firings and beatings.
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