Rohingya Muslims: 6 J&K cops injured as 'solidarity day' protest turns violent
Srinagar: Six policemen, including two officers, were injured after clashes erupted in Anantnag town of Jammu and Kashmir on Friday afternoon over alleged persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.
A group of people, headed towards Lal Chowk in Anantnag to observe a peaceful protest, attacked the police after they resorted to lathicharge and used teargas to stop the protesters from proceeding further. The crowd also resorted to stone pelting.
The protesters turned violent and dragged policemen out of a Rakshak vehicle and torched it, eyewitnesses said.
Jammu and Kashmir Police, through Twitter, gave information about the casualty in the violence.
Reports from Anantnag said that protests and violence have spread to some other areas of the town too. Stray incidents of violence and clashes between irate crowds and the security forces were reported from a few Srinagar areas as well.
The Jammu and Kashmir Police and CRPF personnel, in riot gear, had enforced a security lockdown in parts of Srinagar in the morning in view of the protests. An alliance of religious organisations asked people of Kashmir to observe September 8 as “Solidarity Day” and stage peaceful protests after Friday prayers.
Kashmir’s chief Muslim cleric and prominent separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was placed under house arrest, while separatist leader Muhammad Yasin Malik was arrested and sent to jail ahead of the 'solidarity day'. Separatist patriarch Syed Ali Shah Geelani is already under house arrest.
However, official sources said that actions against the separatist leaders were taken primarily to prevent them from flying to New Delhi where they had planned to ask the National Investigating Agency (NIA) to arrest them.
The police officials said that security restrictions have been imposed in the Srinagar areas falling under the jurisdiction of five police stations.
The locals said over the phone that dozens of security personnel have laid siege around the city’s Grand Mosque.
The main gates of the premises have been locked and the worshipers are unlikely to be allowed to go inside for the Friday congregation.
