Srinagar: At least three people were killed and over 200 people injured in renewed clashes across Kashmir Valley on Friday.
Police identified one of the slain men as Muhammad Maqbool Wagay, who was hit in the chest when security forces opened fire to quell a violent protest in Chadoora area in the central district of Budgam. 37 others were also injured in the clash and seven of them who sustained critical bullet or pellet injuries have been admitted to a Srinagar hospital.
Another person identified as 26-year-old Danish Rasool was killed in pellet gun fire at Wagoora in north-western town of Sopore. Yet another youth, who wasn’t identified immediately, was brought to Srinagar’s SMHS hospital dead from Beeru area, also in Budgam, doctors said.
Read: Clashes around Srinagar's Hazratbal shrine; Geelani, Mirwaiz arrested
Officials said scores of J&K police men and members of CRPF and other central forces were also injured in the clashes and stone-pelting incidents which were on in many areas across the Valley.
The fresh incidents amid extended curfews have occurred on a day when the Centre told the Supreme Court that the law and order situation in Kashmir Valley has improved considerably since the killing of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani with violent protests having gone down from 201 on July 9 to 11 on August 3.
Earlier on Friday afternoon, clashes erupted around Srinagar’s Hazratbal shrine as security forces in riot gear came in the way of huge crowds marching towards the revered place of worship on the western shore of the Dal Lake.
Security forces fired teargas canisters and exploded stun grenades in the middle of slogan-chanting crowds which emerged of various localities including Lal Bazaar, Sadar Bal, Malla Bagh and Naseem Bagh. Earlier people from many localities converged in an open field at Malla Bagh to offer Juma Namaz after the weekly congregational prayers were cancelled at locality mosques.
Soon after the prayers, they while chanting pro-freedom slogans marched towards Hazratbal but were intercepted by the riot police midway. J&K police and CRPF reinforcements arrived at the scene and fired dozens of teargas canisters and also exploded stun grenades to push the crowds back. Amid loud sounds, the acrid tear smoke was ubiquitous as this correspondent was caught in the mêlée.
Similar clashes have been reported also from some other parts of the summer capital as people are making concerted efforts to relocate to Hazratbal in response to a call issued by an alliance of separatist parties as part of its extended calendar of protests and shutdowns.
Protests were held and/or clashes took place between the men in khaki and slogan-chanting surging crowds also in Sopore, Bandipore, Imam Sahib, Tral, Langaet, Hajin and over a dozen other places within the Valley and in Jammu region in Banihal and Surankore areas, leaving scores injured, police sources here said.
