The Kashmir Valley continues to simmer and the body count keeps rising: four more persons, including a teenaged girl, were killed in fresh incidents of police firing to quell protests on Sunday, while four others died in a blast just outside Srinagar.
The firing incidents took place at Pampore, a highway town outside Srinagar, as protesters defied the strict curfew imposed on all Valley towns on Saturday.
Huge crowds were out in the streets of Srinagar till late Sunday evening, and half a dozen government buildings and security installations and many police and official vehicles were torched.
Four persons critically injured in a blast at a camp of the counterinsurgency Special Operations Group (SOG) at Khrew outside Srinagar, which was set on fire by a mob, died in hospital later.
Doctors at the Sri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital said two others injured in the blast “are almost dead”.
The blast took place when explosives held in reserve at the camp caught fire. This damaged several houses and other structures. An unspecified number of people are reportedly stuck under the smouldering debris.
Army and police rescuers and local volunteers evacuated over 40 persons injured in the Khrew SOG camp blast. Doctors at different hospitals said many of them had serious splinter and burn injuries and might not survive.
Relief and rescue operations are on to free those still trapped.
Loudspeakers of local mosques are being used to warn people not to move near the razed camp as there is the possibility of live explosives getting triggered.