At least one person was killed and another seriously wounded when the police opened fire to break up a protest demonstration in the curfew-bound Kashmiri town of Sopore on Sunday. Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah spoke to Union home minister, P. Chidambaram over the phone late on Sunday evening to express his “strong concern” over the recent deaths of civilians in CRPF firings.
Sopore was placed under indefinite curfew on Friday afternoon after two local youth were killed in CRPF firing to quell a violent mob. But irate crowds continued to pour out on the streets to hold protests for the third day on Sunday and occasionally clashed with the police and CRPF. During one such clash, in Sopore’s Kralateng locality, the police fired rifles over the heads of the protesters and also burst teargas canisters which, however, failed to achieve the desired result. Subsequently, the police fired rubber bullets into the stone-throwing mob, one of which hit a protester, later identified as 24-year-old Bilal Ahmed Wani, in the neck.
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He was rushed to a Srinagar hospital where doctors declared him brought dead. Earlier, another youth was injured in police action, reports said.