Srinagar, July 09: After four days of normality, the city was shaken by violence on Wednesday.
People took to the streets, damaged property and set ablaze a police vehicle after the decomposed body of a youth, who went missing on July 3, was found at Rainawari.
About 70 people, including 20 policemen, were injured in the clashes. Hundreds of protesters, mainly youth, took to the streets, chanting slogans and pelting the police with stones, after the news of death of 20-year-old Israr Ahmad reached Maisuma. The protest soon spread to other parts of the city.
A police vehicle was gutted at Maisuma, from where Ahmad hailed. The city’s well-known coffee shop, Coffea Arabica, was also attacked. All shops, offices and banks in most parts of the city suspended work and the public transport came to a halt. Meraj Ahmad Kakroo, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Srinagar, said Section 144 was imposed in several parts of the city. There was, however, no curfew, he said.
Denying that the youth was killed in custody, Senior Superintendent of Police Syed Ahfadul Mujtaba said he was killed immediately after being kidnapped on Friday.
“We have registered a case under Section 302 and detained two people for interrogation,” he told The Hindu.
The Hurriyat Conference, the JKLF, the Freedom Party, the Muslim League and the People’s Democratic Party have condemned the killing and demanded an impartial and speedy investigation.
Policeman dead
Zulfikar Ahmad, a constable with the IRP, who suffered injuries in a grenade attack by suspected militants on a police party at Maisuma on Monday, has died.
–Agencies