Two killed, over 50 injured in violence across Kashmir (Second Lead)

SRINAGAR - Two people were killed and over 50 others injured Friday in fierce daylong clashes between the security forces and protesters across the Kashmir Valley.

Two people were killed when Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers opened fire in Amargarh area of north Kashmir’s Sopore town, 54 km from here, at an unruly mob that had damaged a portion of the rail track there.

“Two people identified as Muhammad Ahsan Ganai and Showkat Ahmad Wagay were killed and three others sustained gunshot wounds in the Amargarh firing incident,” a senior police officer said here.

Three other critically injured protesters were removed to Srinagar for specialized treatment where attending doctors have described their conditions as critical.

CRPF spokesman, Prabhakar Triparthi, however, denied the CRPF had opened fire at the protesters in Sopore. “There is no deployment of the CRPF in the area,” he said.

Mobs also torched a portion of the Pattan police station in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, 30 km from here, as baton charges and tear smoke shells failed to quell the irate mobs there.

Over two dozen people were injured in the clashes at Pattan.

Three people sustained gunshot wounds in the adjacent Singhpora village on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad highway where mobs blocked the highway by felling trees and vandalised passing vehicles of the security forces.

The injured persons have since been admitted to a hospital in Srinagar for treatment.

In yet another incident, an angry mob attacked the Potkhah police post near Sopore town and ransacked it. The mobs also torched two buses of police.

In south Kashmir’s Tral town, protesters pelted stones on security forces, leading the latter to use batons and tear smoke shells to quell the unruly mob.

Twenty people including eight security men and 12 protesters were injured in the Tral clashes.

One of the injured protesters had to be shifted to Srinagar for treatment after being hit by a tear smoke shell in the face.

Doctors here said his condition was critical.

Earlier, one teenager identified as Iqbal Ahmad Khan was critically injured when CRPF troopers opened fire to quell an unruly mob of protesters in the Chanapora area of the city, 5 km from city centre Lal Chowk.

Doctors at the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences Soura (SKIMS) who operated on Khan said his condition was “unstable and critical”.

“The injured person has been put on life support system and his condition is unstable and critical,” the doctors said here.

Mobs ruthlessly beat five local policemen in Rambagh area after the news of the Chanapora firing incident spread in the city.

Clashes between curfew defying mobs and the security forces continued in Chanapora, Barzalla, Rambagh and Hyderpora areas of the city till late this evening.

Authorities have now announced that an indefinite curfew will remain in force in the entire Srinagar city Saturday and people have been asked not to venture out as those defying the curfew would be dealt with sternly.