Srinagar, June 26
One person was killed and 100 others were injured, two of them with bullet wounds, as protests continued for the fourth consecutive day over the Amarnath land transfer issue.
Normal life was paralysed across the Kashmir valley. Demonstrators indulged in stone pelting and disrupted traffic on the roads forcing the police and the CRPF to lathicharge and lob teargas shells to disperse the agitating crowd.
Zeeshan Ahmad Dar was killed in the police firing at Kawdara. Two other persons received bullet injuries at Ganderbal and Anantnag. Srinagar city wore a deserted look and the police lathi-charged demonstrators in several places including Nowhatta, Khanyar, Hawal, Soura, Natipora, Rambagh and Sanat Nagar.
Shops, business establishments and educational institutions remained closed and traffic was off the roads throughout the valley. The demonstrating crowd damaged vehicles.
Mohammad Yasin Malik, JKLF chairman, led a protest demonstration in Lal Chowk area against the land transfer issue and police action. “We are not against any religion or the Amarnath yatra,” he said and added that certain forces within the government and outside were trying to sabotage the “freedom struggle of the people of Kashmir by giving a communal colour to it.”
Several APHC leaders including Syed Ali Shah Geelani and his associate Ashraf Sahrai, and moderates Shabir Ahmad Shah and Javed Ahmad Mir were kept under house arrest.
A PDP spokesman condemning
the police action expressed concern over the arrest of several separatist leaders across the valley.
Meanwhile, S.M. Sahai, IGP Kashmir zone, said the police was trying to talk to the senior and respectable, serious persons in various localities so that normal situation could be restored as soon as possible.
He said that although the protests have been reported from various parts of Srinagar and some parts of Ganderbal and Budgam area, it was trying to maintain utmost restrain although many miscreants among the mobs attack the Police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) by hurling stones on them. He said protesters even damaged ambulance carrying patients and injured. He said mostly civilians including tourists and pilgrims have suffered damages. All this hurt the economy of Kashmir badly. The number of tourists have decreased in last two-three days.
He said the small shopkeepers particularly the vegetable and fruit vendors have suffered the most. He said the present situation would hit the tourist season badly. Sahai said the police and the CRPF men have been directed to exercise maximum possible restraint.
