12 dead, scores injured as Kashmir boils over killing of militant Burhan
Srinagar: At least, Twelve people were killed and scores injured as several areas in the Kashmir Valley erupted on Saturday, a day after new-age poster boy of militancy Burhan Muzaffar Wani died along with two associates in a gun battle with security forces in southern Anantnag district.
Senior police officials while confirming the killing of eight protesters told a hurriedly convened press conference in Srinagar on Saturday evening that one of the youth died from downing in south Kashmir. The remaining deaths were also reported from twin districts of Anantnag and Kulgam in south of the Valley. A ninth person, 25-year-old Azad Hussain among the injured died in Srinagar’s government-run SMHS Hospital in the evening.
The other deceased have been identified Amir Bashir Khan, Saqib Manzoor Mir, Aijaz Ahmed Thakur, Muhammed Asif Dar, Showkat Ahmed, Muhammad Safeer Bhat, Bilal Ahmed Shah and Shah Danish-all from southern districts of the Valley which witnessed worst street clashes and incidents of stone-pelting since Friday night, police sources said.
The police officers ADG (CID) SM Sahai and IG (Kashmir range) Javed Mujtaba Gillani told reporters that the police and other security forces were faced with a very tough situation and that they only retaliated to a series of mob attacks on the police stations, garrisons, homes of politicians and the key infrastructure. Also, attempts were made to snatch the service weapons of security forces at various places, they alleged and said that as many as 96 security personnel were also injured in the incidents.
Burhan Wani (right), who was killed by security forces in Kashmir on Friday (AP Photo)
The officers said that the ‘most serious attack’ was on the police station in Damhal Hanjipora (Kulgam) where a mob torched the building and looted the weaponry. “They used the same weapons against our men by taking 20 of them hostage,” Mr. Sahai said adding “Three of them were injured and three are still missing.”
Meanwhile, thousands of mourners turned up at the funeral of Wani in his home town Tral, 42-km south of capital Srinagar. Three youth wearing bandannas and carrying AK 47 rifles were also seen around, reports said.
Read: Government will stand firm: Madhav on Kashmir situation
Reports pouring in Srinagar said that deployments and camps of J&K policemen, CRPF and other security forces and an office of ruling BJP came under mob attacks in different areas.
Major parts of summer capital Srinagar and several other towns in the Kashmir Valley were earlier on Saturday placed under curfew or locked down to hold back mourning rallies following the killing of Wani. Curfew and other security restrictions are being extended to more Valley areas from Saturday night, official sources said.
Wani, 22, was along with two of his aides Sartaj Ahmed Sheikh and Masoom Ahmed Shah killed in a fierce two-and-a-half-hours long encounter with security forces in Kokernag area of southern Anantnag district on Friday. He was carrying a cash reward of Rs 1 million on his head.
Amid heightening tensions and anger, the authorities fanned out thousands of policemen in riot gear overnight to enforce the security lockdown in parts of Srinagar, Pulwama, Anantnag, Kulgam, Sopore, Shopian and some other towns whereas security was beefed up further elsewhere in the Valley. Most separatist leaders were earlier placed under house arrest or detained in police stations to prevent them from joining the planned mourning rallies.
Read: Protests in Kashmir 'unfortunate': Congress
Amarnath Yatra was suspended and no pilgrim was on Saturday allowed to move from winter capital Jammu towards the Valley to relocate to the 12,729-foot-high cave-shrine tucked away in Pahalgam hills.
Those who returned to the base-camps of Baltal and Nunwun (Pahalgam) after paying obeisance at Amarnath on Saturday are likely to be escorted out of the Valley during the night time, police sources said.
As many 12,500 personnel from CRPF and other central forces and another 8,000 men from the J&K police besides columns of Army are providing security cover to the 48-day annual pilgrimage which commenced on July 2. Till Saturday evening, 118,747 pilgrims had visited the cave-shrine, officials said.
The authorities also suspended the Internet services on mobile phones and through dongles “as a precautionary measure”. Earlier many people took to the social networking sites to mourn Wani’s death. Many replaced their profile pictures with that of Wani on Facebook and Twitter.com to pay tribute to the slain militant commander.
Six protestors were killed in violence that erupted after the death of Hizbul Mujahideen leader Burhan Wani. (Photo: H Naqash)
Former Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, wrote on micro-blogging site Twitter.com “Aftr many yrs I hear slogans for "Azadi" resonate from the mosque in my uptown Srinagar locality. Kashmir's disaffected got a new icon y'day”. In another tweet, he said, “Mark my words - Burhan's ability to recruit in to militancy from the grave will far outstrip anything he could have done on social media.”
Train services between Baramulla in northwest Kashmir and Banihal town across the Pirpanjal mountain ridge in Jammu division were also suspended too. Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education (JKBOSE), Kashmir University and Central University, Kashmir postponed all examinations scheduled for Saturday to Monday.
In Srinagar strict restrictions under Section 144 of the Ranbir Penal Code are being enforced in areas falling under police stations of Nowhatta, Khanyar, Rainawari, M.R. Gunj, Safakadal, Maisuma and Kralkhud. Elsewhere, a complete shutdown was observed to mourn Wani’s killing.
Late Friday night, thousands of mourners turned up at Srinagar’s historic Jamia Masjid to offer Nimaz-e-Jinaza Gaibana or prayers in absentia for Wani and his associates. A report from Tral, his native town, said that thousands of mourners carried the body of Wani through the streets of the town before the funeral.
Funeral procession of top militant commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani at Shareef village in Tral some 40 kilometers south of Srinagar. (Photo: Habib Naqash)
In Srinagar, clashes erupted between irate crowds of youth and security forces who fired teargas canisters into stone-throwing mobs at places, witnesses said. Deafening sound of exploding teargas canisters and stun grenades could be heard whereas mosque loudspeakers were blaring 'Tresh ma lajji Burhano' (Burhan, you may be feeling thirsty). This was reminiscent of early 1990s.
Key separatist leaders including Mirwaiz Muhammad Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik were placed under house arrest or detained at police stations to prevent them from relocating to Tral to attend the funeral of Wani or join the ‘prayers in absentia’ announced to be held in Srinagar and elsewhere in the Valley on Saturday.
Reports pouring in here from various parts of the Valley said that a youth was killed in firing at Kolpora, Koimoh in southern Kulgam district. Identified as Zubair Ahmed Khanday, the youth had sustained multiple bullet injuries in thoracic region, doctors at a local hospital said. The protesters had attacked police and a CRPF camp in the area overnight, reports said.
Another person identified by locals as Aadil Bashir was killed in security forces’ firing at Dooru area of neighbouring Anantnag district. Firing on violent mobs were reported also from Silgam, Seer, also in Anantnag, leaving, at least three persons wounded, one of them critically, reports said. Two more youth are reported to have died elsewhere, one of them due to drowning in a river while being chased by security forces during a clash.
A mob torched a police station in Achabal area of Anantnag. The BJP office in Kulgam and several police posts and deployments also came under attack in various parts of Kulgam and Anantnag districts and in northern district of Bandipore and at Warpora in Sopore township of Baramulla district A police picket guarding a cluster of houses of Kashmiri Pandits at Vessu near Qazigund, the gateway to the Valley from the south, was also attacked by a mob but without causing any casualties, police sources said.
(Photo: Habib Naqash)
Elsewhere, the irate crowds indulged in heavy stone pelting on police and CRPF after they came in their way. Clashes were underway at Sheeri, Kreeri, Delina, Pattan and Palhalan in Baramulla district and several areas of Pulwama and Srinagar districts as reports last came in.
More than 60 injured people have been admitted in various Srinagar hospitals, mainly SMHS hospital, doctors attending on them said.
The security forces’ officials termed Wani’s killing a “spectacular” win over the separatist militants in the Himalayan state and said that the same will have a demoralising impact on them. But octogenarian separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani who called for a one day shutdown in Kashmir to mourn and protest against Wani’s killing said “the iconic mujahid’s martyrdom will give impetus to the push for azadi”. Mr. Geelani who has been facing curbs on his movement for the last few months also announced three-day mourning in Kashmir and said “Every household will pay tributes to the Kashmiri brave-hearts for three days.” The separatists have now extended the shutdown call by two more days in view of Saturday’s “carnage”.
Wani, the Internet savvy poster boy of Kashmiri militancy, was a resident of Dadsara village of south Kashmir’s Tral area (Pulwama district) who days before he was to appear in his Class X examination left his home in 2010 to join the region’s frontline indigenous militant outfit Hizb-ul-Mujahideen.
He soon rose to become its district commander and figured in the list of most wanted militants by the security forces combating a 27-year-old insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir which has already claimed thousands of lives including militants, security forces’ personal and unarmed civilians.
Wani’s father Muzaffar Ahmed Wani is a school principal who before switching his mobile phone off on Friday night told a reporter "He (Burhan) has gone to God. He has achieved what he was craving for."
He also appealed people not to damage public property while venting their anger.
