1 more killed in CRPF firing in Valley, toll 29

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At least one person was killed when the CRPF opened fire at Bemina in Srinagar on Wednesday evening, raising the toll in the past six days to 29.
Witnesses alleged that the CRPF jawans shot 30-year-old Muhammad Yakub from point blank range. “There were no protests or violence going on in the area. The C

RPF men opened fire when while leaving the area at dusk they were jeered at by some people standing at the rim of a side street,” claimed one of the witnesses Najeebullah.
However, CRPF spokesperson Prabhakar Tripathi told this newspaper that while a protest was underway in the area, “a bullet came from somewhere hitting the man resulting into his death on way to hospital.” He said, “We are investigating as some people say the fire was opened from a CRPF Gypsy passing through the area and others claim it came from a nearby CRPF bunker.”
Huge crowds chanting pro-freedom slogans again filled the streets of Srinagar areas and some other parts of Kashmir Valley on Wednesday making bonfires. They occasionally clashed with security forces which fired live ammunition at some places to enforce an official curfew in force non-stop since Friday. Nearly 100 protesters and several policemen were injured in these clashes. A 22-year-old youth Iqbal Ahmed Khan died at a city hospital of bullet wounds he had received in CRPF firing in Srinagar’s Channapora area on July 30. Thousands attended his funeral, frequently chanting “We want freedom” and “Go India, go back.”
Nearly fifty thousand mourners turned up at Khrew on the outskirts of the summer capital in reverence to nine persons killed in security forces’ firings and blasts triggered when explosives kept in reserve at a police camp caught fire after it was torched by a mob on Sunday. To avoid confrontation with incensed population, both the police and the CRPF had been withdrawn from the area.
In Srinagar’s Brathna-Qamarwari area, however, irate crowds chased away security forces and later held protests during which a stationary forest department jeep was torched. Clashes between slogan chanting crowds and security forces were reported also from some other areas including Nagam in Budgam district, Kangan in Ganderbal district and at various places in Anantnag, Baramulla, Kupwara, Shopian and Pulwama districts but their intensity was not as high as witnessed during such incidents in past few days, reports said.