Srinagar: A youth was killed another wounded when the Army troops opened fire on a mob in Beeru town of Jammu and Kashmir's central district of Budgam on Friday.
Reports from Beeru said a group of youth while protesting against the recent killings in the Valley turned violent and allegedly hurled stones at the troops patrolling in the area. The latter opened fire hitting two youth identified as Tanveer Ahmed Pala and Muhammad Ibrahim Wani, the former in the head.
They were rushed to a nearby medical facility where Pala was declared dead on arrival. The locals alleged that the troops earlier thrashed residents, triggering protests.
The police said the troops from the Army’s 53 Rashtriya Rifles were on patrolling the area on foot when “miscreants” hurled rocks at them. “Someone among these miscreants also hurled a fire cracker towards the Army men. Because of bang the Army men thought a grenade was hurled and they retaliated,” a statement issued by the police said.
Life has come to a standstill in most parts of the Valley as marketplaces, most financial and educational institutions and some government offices are shut following a general strike call issued by the alliance of key separatist leaders-Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik - against civilian killings and other alleged human rights violations by the security forces.
The police and central paramilitary forces are enforcing curfew-like restrictions in eight police stations areas of summer capital Srinagar. Friday congregational prayers were not allowed in Srinagar's Grand Mosque. The train services have been suspended by the authorities "as a precautionary measure" whereas public transport services are off the roads in response to the separatists' strike call.
The security around the summer headquarters of the United Nations Military Observers' Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) is very tight as the separatists' alliance had asked people to march towards it to demand plebiscite and lodge protest over killings and other atrocities.
The separatist leaders have been placed under house arrest or detained in police stations. Malik who had gone ‘underground’ on Thursday to evade arrest emerged from a nearby mosque at Buchwara after Friday prayers and then began walking towards the UNMOGIP but the police came in his way and took him into custody, the witnesses and police sources said.
After the Friday prayers protests broke out in several Valley areas and at a few places clashes between stone-pelting mobs and security forces were going on when reports last came in.
Meanwhile, the separatist leaders’ alliance which calls itself ‘Joint Resistance Leadership’ has sent a memorandum to the UN Secretary General António Guterres appealing him and the member countries to take a serious note of the prevailing situation of the “grotesque abuse of human rights” in Kashmir and “a war like situation” between the armies of India and Pakistan along the Line of Control (LoC) and “come forward at this most critical juncture for the people of Jammu and Kashmir and play an effective role to end atrocities and suppression of Kashmiris especially the systematic killing of our youth”.
The memorandum also says “In present day world wars do not resolve issues, nor does repression. Dialogue and serious engagement are the means to be employed to move forward towards resolution. We appeal to the world body, where our dispute is pending for the last seven decades to honour its commitment as well as ethical responsibility to address the dispute to find a just and acceptable resolution of it in keeping with the aspirations of the People of this territory”.
