Anantnag, March 26
Violent clashes amid sporadic shutdown were witnessed in some parts of Anantnag town today after a man was found dead under mysterious circumstances in the Monghal area of Anantnag district.

Family members of the deceased alleged he was killed in the police custody but the police has vehemently denied the charges.

Reports said the body of Bilal Ahmad Dar, son of Abdul Samad Dar, a shopkeeper from the Monghal area, was found lying near a railway track in his native village around 11 am today.

The family members of the deceased said he left the house around 6 pm on Monday evening.

“He did not return till late in the evening,” said Muhammad Yaqoob Dar, brother of the deceased. “Around 10 pm in the evening, we got a call from one of the neighbours, who told us that Bilal has been arrested by the police,” he said.

However, on reaching the Saddar police station in Anantnag today, the family was told by the police that they did not arrest Bilal.

“They told us that they have arrested some people from our village but Bilal was not among them,” said Muhammad Abbas Dar, another brother of the deceased.

After the family returned home from the police station, one of the women from the family found the body in a nearby field along the railway track and informed others.

The police, meanwhile, said Bilal was not detained by them, “We had arrested three persons from the area but Bilal was not among them,” said Anantnag SSP RK Jalla.

He said no injury marks were found on his body. However, the family members said there were injury marks on the Bilal’s head.

The deceased’s family along with other people from the village carried his body to Anantnag town and the authorities there ordered a post-mortem examination.

Thousands of people had assembled at the Anantnag district hospital.

Clashes between the people and the police broke out as the people assembled there tried to carry the body towards the Deputy Commissioner’s office.

“The police fired teargas shells to disperse us and prevent from marching ahead,” said one of the persons present at the hospital.

Reports said the police went berserk within the hospital premises. “The police thrashed some of the patients in the hospital and also damaged hospital property,” sources said.

A journalist, working with a local news agency, was also beaten up by the policemen and his camera was taken away.

“They returned my camera but deleted all the pictures I had managed to click,” said the journalist.

DIG south Kashmir range, Vijay Kumar has assured the media fraternity that action against the erring police personnel would be taken.

Meanwhile, the Assistant Commissioner Development, Anantnag, Ghulam Ahmad Dar, was injured during the clashes after a teargas shell hit him on the leg. His condition is said to be stable. 

Srinagar, March 26
Parts of the old city of Srinagar observed a shutdown for the second consecutive day on Tuesday to demand the removal of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) bunkers from the area.

The shutdown was observed in Saraf Kadal, Nawa Kadal, Gojwara, Bohri Kadal, Rajouri Kadal and Kawdara areas of the old city.

Most of the shops in these localities remained shut and the shutdown has also affected traffic services in the areas. The situation, however, remained largely calm with no report of any major clash in the areas.

A shopkeeper said the shutdown was to demand the removal of the CRPF bunkers, which had become a "cause of protests" in the areas.

In several of these localities, the CRPF maintains bunkers which have become centre of clashes between stone throwers and the security forces.

Some of the local shopkeepers alleged that the youths converged at the CRPF installations during shutdown and started throwing stones at bunkers, which deepened the tension in these areas and lead to a commercial loss for the shopkeepers.

The CRPF had earlier demolished several of its two-decade old bunkers from most parts of the old city.

A resident of Kawdara said the shutdown was continuing for the second day today. Today, it had spread to other areas of the old city.

The old city of Srinagar has remained shut for over 20 days since Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru was hanged last month.While stone-pelting was widespread in the old city localities during the 2008 and 2010 unrest, it had remained largely limited to Kawdara and Saraf Kadal areas since then.

Srinagar, March 26
Hundreds of paramedical employees of the Health and Medical Education Department today called off strike after the state government "released" the salary of class IV employees, which was not paid for the past six months.

The Health Department had not released the salary of over 100 class IV employees after a probe by the government unearthed a large number of fake appointments in the department. It was not only these class IV employees but the probe had said nearly 2,400 employees in the department were appointed illegally, allegedly by the health officials over a period of time.

The paramedical employees had begun a two-day strike on yesterday and it had affected the functioning of many hospitals associated with the Health Department in Srinagar and other parts of the Valley.

“Those employees whose salary was withheld were not illegally appointed but had been appointed after a due process. We had requested the government that these employees were poor and their salary should be released but the government did not heed to our demands. So we were left with no option but to go on a strike,” said president of Health employees Coordination Committee Showkat Andrabi.

“After negotiations, the government released the salary of these employees this afternoon and we resumed our duties immediately,” he added.

Kashmir’s Divisional Commissioner Shalinder Kumar confirmed that the employees had called off their strike today. “There have been a lot of illegal appointments in the Health Department and we have decided to release the salary of these class IV employees but only after they provide a valid certificate,” Kumar said. 

Srinagar, March 26
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti has expressed shock at the mysterious death of a man in the Monghal village of Anantnag district.

Asserting that the Kashmir valley is being pushed deeper into chaos, insecurity and mourning, the PDP president said her heart goes out to the family of the young man.

Bilal Ahmad Dar, son of Abdul Samad Dar, a resident of Monghal village here in Anantnag, was found dead under mysterious circumstances today.

Bilal’s family has alleged that he was picked up by the police on Monday evening and has been killed in their custody. Mehbooba said expecting fair probe into this latest tragedy from a government was useless.

“The Chief Minister only displays his rhetorical skills and breast beating on every tragedy,” Mehbooba said. “He sees such events only as an occasion to showcase his ‘bleeding heart’,” she added.

She said if the Chief Minister had instead been keen to govern the state, ensure safety of its citizens, provide justice and good governance, the state would not have faced this unprecedented crisis where everybody, especially the youth, have again become vulnerable to either state repression or unknown killers.

“The Valley has been a witness to deaths that were never investigated and the feeling of foul play in Bilal’s death is understandable,” Mehbooba said. She said the government will have to come out with facts of his death after a transparent probe if it does not want to add to the crisis of trust it faces.

Sopore, March 26
Residents and traders of Sopore town have expressed resentment against the authorities for providing basic civic amenities, including non-functional streetlights and a poor drainage system.

They said that streetlights in the town have been lying defunct since the past two months and posing inconvenience to pedestrians during evening hours.

They also complained that rainfall on Sunday had left the lanes, bylanes and streets in the town waterlogged.

“Even light showers make the roads, streets, lanes and bylanes waterlogged. The drainage system in the town is poor. Despite the repeated pleas, the authorities concerned are not taking any steps to maintain the drainage system,” said Abdul Rashid.

An amount of about Rs 1.3 crore had been spent on the repair works of the streetlights, sources said. The lights installed during the past one year went defunct only after a few months and have not been made functional till the date.

“What is the point in spending more than crores on lighting when they are not working for the past two months. Time and again, we have got false assurances from the authorities concerned,” said Reyaz Ahmad, a trader.

The poor drainage system has a bearing on fruit growers in the town, they claimed. Due to the poor drainage system, the roads around the largest fruit mandi in India, located in the town, often get submerged in rainwater.

“The poor drainage system has affected our business to a great extent. The mandi itself and roads around it used to remain submerged by rain water for days,” said Mohd Sultan, a fruit grower. 

Handwara, March 26
Residents of Khanpora and its two adjoining villages in Handwara tehsil today protested against alleged harassment by renegades (government gunmen) on the family of Gh Mohd Dar, a resident of Khanpora.

They were demanding action against the accused and blocked Khanpora-Handwara road till 11 am today.

The family accused the renegades of harassing them unnecessarily last night. The 47-year-old Dar, a farmer, said a group of four to five renegades tried to barge into his house last night. They smashed doors and windows to frighten his family.

“They screamed in Urdu ‘open the door’ but I did not open it. Then, they smashed windows and doors for about an hour till 1 am to frighten my family. I do not know what was the motive behind a raid during the night hours,” said Dar.

Yesterday, Armymen from 47 RR conducted a search operation of the house, Dar said. Fearing immense insecurity to his family, Dar expressed apprehensions that the accused were after his grown-up daughters. “I have five grown-up daughters at home and I am afraid that the gunmen have ill-intentions about them. One of my daughters fainted when the accused were smashing doors and windows of the house,” he said.

One of the Dar’s daughters, a BA-I student, is frequently receiving “threatening calls” from an unknown caller for the past few days, sources said.

His son, Tufail Ahmad, a Class XII student in Handwara, was today threatened by some unknown persons to not to attend the school.

“Three unknown persons came to me in the school and warned me not to come to the school from tomorrow,” he said. The family members said this morning they noticed Mansoor Ahmad Mir of Sarmarg, a member of the Territorial Army (TA), moving near the house and handed him over to the police for questioning. “But the Handwara police released him an hour later. We want he should be thoroughly questioned,” said a protestor.

SP Handwara Mohd Aslam Chowdary said, “A police team visited the spot and investigations would be held.” 

Srinagar, March 26
The Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) has condemned the arrest and the subsequent shifting of senior Hurriyat leader and DFP chairman Shabbir Shah to Kotbalwal jail in Jammu and demanded his “immediate” release.

Shah, who is also a senior executive member of the Hurriyat Conference led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, was shifted to Kotbalwal jail in Jammu from Central Jail, Srinagar, on March 16.

The police had arrested him on February 9 and lodged in Central Jail, Srinagar, to ward off protests over in the wake of Afzal Guru’s hanging in Tihar.

DFP senior leader Moulana Abdulla Tari has condemned the detention and the subsequent shifting of Shabbir Shah to Kotbalwal jail in Jammu, a DFP spokesman said.

“Moulana Tari, while demanding the immediate release of Shah, said Shabbir Shah was shifted to Jammu despite his ill health, which is a cause of concern,” the spokesman said.

The spokesman said Shah has been arrested on minor charges at the Sadder police station. “The authorities have not granted him bail. Now, he has been shifted to Kotbalwal, which is sheer a political vendetta,” the spokesman quoted Tari. 

Srinagar, March 26
Hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani today alleged that Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s recent statements in the state Legislative Assembly (LA) are “stunts” ahead of the next-year elections.

“Chief Minister Omar Abdullah's recent statements in the Legislative Assembly are just election “stunts”. With the advent of election time, the National Conference and other pro-India parties have started to raise their voice against New Delhi’s oppression in Kashmir,” Geelani said in a statement.

Geelani castigated the ruling coalition as well as the opposition and blamed them for the present situation. “Shedding of crocodile tears will not absolve them,” the hardline Hurriyat leader said.

Srinagar, March 26
Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) president Prof Saifuddin Soz today urged the youth to desist from stone-throwing.

“Throwing of stones, whatever be the provocation, will always lead to disruption of peace and promotion of an atmosphere detrimental to larger interests of the people,” Soz said while addressing a public gathering at Khanpora in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district.

He urged the gathering, especially youth, that the best way to resolve their problems was to create an atmosphere for a dialogue.

Earlier, he visited nearby Veerwan to look into the issues faced by quarry workers of the area. The JKPCC spokesman said the issue was sorted out on the spot. 

Kupwara, March 26
The police today arrested three burglars, who were involved in a theft of two cement mixers from Trehgam town of Kupwara district. The stolen mixers were also recovered from them.

The accused have been identified as Farooq Ahmad Bhat of Nailoo Pattan in Baramulla, Mohammad Amin Lone of Khag, Drung in Baramulla and Ghulam Nabi Najar of Trehgam. — OC