6 injured in police action in Kashmir Valley

While curfew remained clamped in several areas of Srinagar district and Bijbehara, restrictions were lifted in Anantnag and Sopore.

Six people were injured, two of them seriously, on Sunday when police used force to quell a stone-pelting mob in Srinagar, many areas of which are under curfew in the wake of a shutdown call.

All the six received pellet injuries and were shifted to different hospitals for treatment, police said.

They said that the personnel were conducting a flag march in northern part of the city when it came across an “objectionable” flag at Chhana Mohalla locality of Chattabal.

While the flag was being removed, some protesters indulged in heavy stone-pelting on the police, prompting them to resort to cane charge. Thereafter, police lobbed teargas shells and used pump action ammunition to chase them away.

Hospital sources identified five of the injured as Tanvir Ahmad Najar, Javid Ahmad Sofi, Bashir Ahmad Bhat and Mukhtar Ahmad and Mohammad Maqbool Ganai. While Mr. Najar and Mr. Sofi received chest injury, Mr. Bhat, Mr. Ahmad and Mr. Ganai are being treated for leg wounds.

Meanwhile, police said curfew was clamped in Trehgam town of Kupwara district as a precautionary measure.

They said curfew remained clamped in areas under the jurisdiction of various police stations of Srinagar district — Batmaloo, Bemina, Qammerwari, Kralkhud, Nowhatta, Khanyar, M.R. Gunj, Safakadal, Rainawari, Maisuma and parts of Khotibagh — till further orders.

Police said curfew also remained in force in Bijbehara while the restrictions have been lifted in Anantnag and Sopore towns.

Markets remained closed and transport was off the roads in most parts of the Valley in response to the separatists’ call for strike.

The Valley was rocked by violence following the death of a teenager on June 11 after he was allegedly hit by a tear gas shell near Rajouri Kadal area. After that, street protests broke out in the Valley which has claimed 62 lives so far.

Meanwhile, police denied media reports that 42 youths were rounded up in Bemina locality of Srinagar on Saturday during a crackdown and said only six have been arrested.

“The report published in some newspapers that 42 youths were rounded up in Bemina is incorrect,” they said.

They said police had launched an operation against the stone-pelters in the area. “The police questioned some people out of which only six persons against whom there is enough evidence in form of videos and photographs have been arrested,” police said.

Chief Secretary S.S. Kapur on Sunday visited Kulgam and Anantnag to review law and order situation in the two districts of south Kashmir.