M A I N   N E W S

Three J-K policemen hurt in clashes with Shia mourners
Tribune News Service

Srinagar, November 23
The police on Friday laid barbed wires at key junctions and restricted civilian movement towards major commercial centres as the city was put under siege to scuttle any attempt by Shia mourners to take out processions.

Hundreds of policemen in riot gear patrolled the city’s main roads and several Shia mourners were detained at Batamaloo and Jehangir Chowk.

A police spokesman said three policeman were injured in the clashes. Clashes also broke out at Saraf Kadal in Srinagar’s old city and at Cement Bridge in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district.

Srinagar’s commercial nerve centre and major markets located around Lal Chowk remained shut as all roads to the area remained blocked late till evening.

Restrictions, which were imposed on civilian movement around Shaheed Gunj and Dalgate neighbourhoods and at several other places in the city, hit the transport services on the city roads. Banks and other businesses in many parts of the city were also shut.

A major clash broke out between Shia mourners at Batamaloo when one of their processions was intercepted by the police. Scores of youth clashed with the police and paramilitary personnel at Batamaloo which soon turned into a stone-throwing clash between the police and mourners.

Eyewitnesses said a mourner also set himself on fire at Batamaloo to protest the ban on the religious procession. The man, whose identity was not known till late evening, was detained by the police, eyewitnesses said.

Muharram processions, which are part of the mourning by members of the Shia sect, have been banned in Kashmir since 1989. Shia Muslims mourn the seventh century “martyrdom” of Imam Hussain, Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, every year in the Islamic month of Muharram.