Four killed, 47 injured in Kashmir Friday (Roundup)

SRINAGAR - Four people, including two teenagers, were killed and 47 others injured in Jammu and Kashmir Friday as security forces fired at mobs attacking a paramilitary camp, a police station and security men at different places, taking to 55 the violence-toll in the Valley since June 11.

In Srinagar, the scheduled unified headquarters meeting was cancelled Friday evening and now will be held Saturday.

Though there was speculation that the meeting was postponed due to Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s unhappiness over the deaths of four civilians, an official statement by the state government attributed the cancellation to “senior police and paramilitary force officials being busy in the field”.

Muhammad Arif Mir, 19, and Sumeer Ahmad Lone, 18, were killed and two protesters injured when Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers opened fire after all other measures to disperse a mob attacking a CRPF camp in Bomai village on the outskirts of Sopore town in Baramulla district, 59 km from here.

In Bomai village, mobs regrouped in the evening and again attacked the CRPF camp there, leading to the troopers opening fire.

“Two persons sustained bullet injuries in this incident including a women. They have been shifted to Srinagar for specialized treatment”, a police officer said.

Earlier in the day, 21-year-old Mudasir Ahmad Zargar was killed in north Kashmir’s Trehgam village, 120 km from here, and 60-year-old Ali Muhammad Khandey died in Pattan town after security forces fired at mobs in these places.

Two women protesters were also injured in the Trehgam violence and were being treated in a hospital here, police said.

“Khandey was killed when police opened fire to disperse an unruly mob defying curfew restrictions in Pattan town in Baramulla district. One protester sustained injury in the incident,” a senior police officer said.

A doctor at the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences Soura (SKIMS) here said Khandey was brought to the hospital in a critical condition and could not be revived.

“He had a fatal head injury which could have been caused either by a direct tear smoke shell hit or a bullet,” said the doctor attending on him.

The police officer said security forces used batons, tear smoke canisters and aerial firing to quell the unruly mob in Pattan town.

In Baramulla town, two stone-pelting youths jumped into the Jhelum river - and swam to safety - after they were chased by security forces at the Cement Bridge.

Protests erupted after Friday prayers in south Kashmir’s Anantnag town, Bemina on the outskirts of Srinagar city and north Kashmir’s Palhalan town where stone-pelting mobs clashed with security forces.

In Srinagar, police fired at quell an unruly mob which attacked the local police station after the Friday prayers, a police officer said. Four people were injured in the incident.

Protesters also resorted to stone pelting battles at Safa Kadal, Saraf Kadal, Rajouri Kadal, Magarmal Bagh, Rambagh, old Barzalla and Chanapora areas of Srinagar.

Protests also erupted in Batmaloo and Maisuma areas, but nobody was injured.

Authorities did not impose any curfew restrictions in Srinagar Friday where the separatist Hurriyat group headed by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq asked people to march to the Jamia Mosque in the old city and hardline Hurriyat group leader Syed Ali Geelani appealed to them to march to Pather Masjid, also in the old city.

Hundreds of people, including Farooq, reached the Jamia Mosque to offer Friday prayers while Geelani was admitted to SKIMS after he complained of chest pain.

In a statement issued here in the evening, Geelani called for a Valley wide shutdown Saturday to protest what he called the killings of innocent civilians.