Security lockdown in Kashmir areas as tensions run high

Two students were killed, 10 others injured in shooting that took place near the site of an encounter with militants.

Curfew-like restrictions are in force in Srinagar areas and some other parts of Kashmir Valley as tensions run high and residents are seething with anger over the killing of two students in security forces firing on protesters in southern district of Pulwama.

Ten others were injured in Sunday’s shooting that took place near the site of an encounter between a group of holed up militants and security forces.

Police said one of the victims Shaista Hameed was hit by a bullet while being evacuated from Pulwama’s Kakapora area after fighting broke out between militants and security forces and that the other slain youth Danish Farooq Mir was hit by a teargas canister fired by police to quell a stone throwing mob.

But residents refuted police claim and alleged that 22-year-old Shaista received fatal bullet injuries while sitting on the porch of her house and that Mir too was not part of the protest but playing cricket in a nearby grounds when hit by a bullet. Doctors who attended on him also contradicted police version and said that Mir, an engineering student, had received a bullet wound in the back of his neck and that most of the other injured civilians had been fired above the waist.

Police said 15 of its men and 6 Army jawans were injured in stone-pelting incidents and that two of the Army jawans were hit in their head in mob attack. It also said that one Lashkar-e-Taiba militant Adil Ahmed Shergojri was killed in the encounter but two of his accomplices escaped taking advantage of chaos created after residents held protests and indulged in heavy stone-pelting on security forces.

Police and CRPF fanned out in large numbers overnight are enforcing curfew-like restrictions in areas falling under half a dozen police stations in summer capital Srinagar. Similar security lockdown is being enforced in some other Valley areas whereas Pulwama town and its neighbourhood are under curfew since Sunday night.

Police authorities said that restrictions under Section 144 Crpc are being enforced to prevent breach of peace. "Restrictions have been imposed in the areas under Srinagar police stations of Khanyar, Rainawari, Nowhatta, M.R.Gunj, Safakadal and Maisuma," a police spokesman said.

Police and CRPF reinforcements have been rushed to other towns including Anantnag, Shopian, Budgam, Bandipore, Tral, Kulgam, Sopore and Baramulla which with rest of the Valley are observing a near complete shutdown to mourn and protest the killings. The call for one-day strike was issued by various separatist parties whose senior leaders have been placed under house arrest. The authorities have suspended train services within the Valley “as a precautionary measure”.

Meanwhile, pro-independence Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) leader Muhammad Yasin Malik among those placed under house arrest on Sunday evening was evacuated to a private hospital here on Monday morning as he was running high fever. JKLF said that its leader contracted acute infection past week at Srinagar central prison.