2 CRPF men among 6 held for inciting violence Yatra halts after dozens hurt in clashes
SRINAGAR: Violent clashes broke out at Baltal, the base camp for the ongoing Amarnath pilgrimage, early Friday morning, forcing authorities to suspend the yatra through Baltal route.
The alleged stabbing and beating of a Muslim horseman by a Hindu chef, running one of the many community kitchens for the pilgrims, has triggered the conflict, which later led to the burning of scores of tents at the base camp.
A CNS report said 35 people including a dozen CRPF personnel sustained injuries during the clashes. Police however downplayed the incident and said only a few persons were injured. Agency reports further informed that the Police has detained six persons including two CRPF personnel for “inciting trouble.”
” The incident took place at Dumail near Baltal area which comes under Sonamarg, a picturesque tourist spot. A small altercation broke out between ‘langarwallahs’, who run community kitchens for the pilgrims, and local pony owners, who take the yatris through rough terrain to the holy cave shrine. However, the quarrel soon took a violent turn as the local unit of CRPF tried to intervene,” local official disclosed.
While the police spokesman maintained that only 12 people were wounded, sources said as many as 25 people were injured which included a few with burn injuries.
Allegations were leveled that CRPF personnel had shown high-handedness and had set the tents on fire, but they were denied by the force.
There was a blast due to explosion of cooking gas cylinder which led to fire in other tents in the camp.
“The situation has been brought under control and senior police and civil administration officials are on the spot to resolve the issue,” the spokesman said.
While officially police only said that they had registered a case, sources said that as many as three CRPF personnel were detained by the local police.
Reacting to the developments, CRPF claimed that 10 community kitchen were set on fire by protesters resulting in injury to 12 of its personnel.
Meanwhile, police said that yatra has been suspended in view of the violence and a convoy en-route to the cave shrine was stopped as a precautionary measure.
Detailing about the incident the locals said more than twenty people were wounded in CRPF action. The CRPF men, they said, fired teargas shells and cane-charged the protesters who were protesting over the alleged murderous attack on a tent owner. The reports said a Hindu langer (Kitchen) owner from Kathua had a tiff with a local horseman Nayib Ahmad.
” The langer owner from Kathua stabbed Nayib and beat him mercilessly. We were demanding action against the culprit, we had nothing to do with the yatra or other tents. The CRPF deployed there went berserk, they set the tents on fire and emptied their ammunition at us,” a local said. Earlier Nayib was reported to have been shifted to SKIMS hospital in Srinagar but a Police spokesman later termed the report incorrect and said “only few people were injured” in the incident.
The clashes were going on when the reports
last came in. The yatra has been stopped at Nowgam-Tawahir tunnel area in Banihal belt as a precaution in view of the clashes between two groups of people at Baltal, police said in Jammu.
The plilgrims were not allowed to move into Kashmir via Jawahar tunnel from Banihal belt of Ramban district.
Amid tight security, the 22nd batch of 1,765 pilgrims, including 1244 men, 409 women and 20 children, left from the Bhagwati Nagar base camp in Jammu in a cavalcade of 62 vehicles this morning
With today’s batch, 41,023 pilgrims have far left from the Jammu base camp for the Amarnath shrine.
J&K’s Governor Narendra Nath Vohra dispatched top officials to Baltal where they held an emergency meeting of the officials and sought details of the incident.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh called up Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and asked him to take all necessary steps.
The state government has deputed senior officials in the area, over 100 kilometers northeast of Srinagar.
The situation according to a Police spokesman is under control but the locals said fear was still looming large. and the situation is under control, officials said.
Meanwhile, Inspector General of Police Kashmir Abdul Gani Mir said that a minor scuffle between service providers was reported in the area.
The scuffle was because of some misunderstanding, Mir said adding that due to the explosion of LPG cylinder in a tent, other nearby tents caught fire.
As the police was busy in dousing the flames, few civilians and some cops got injured during stone pelting. All of them were treated and they are now fine. Yatris are also safe and the situation is under control.
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