Srinagar, June 30: Tensions continued in Baramulla town of north Kashmir Tuesday as an agitating youth was critically injured, reportedly in firing by security forces, after mobs defied curfew imposed after clashes with the police and paramilitary in which two protesters were killed Monday.
The youth, identified as Bilal Ahmad, was reportedly hit by a bullet in his head after protesters defied curfew in the old town area and resorted to throwing stones at the deployed police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).
Ahmad was rushed to the Soura Medical Institute in Srinagar where doctors described his condition as very critical.
Authorities had to impose curfew in the town Monday after two people were killed and 10 wounded as highly agitated protesters resorted to violence in Baramulla.
The protests had begun following allegations by a local woman that she had been abused by a police officer inside a police station.
Police denied the charge and said the woman had come to the police station in the presence of many citizens and had sought the release of her husband who had been booked for facilitating the abduction of a minor girl.
Police had traced the abducted girl and her abductor on disclosures made to them by the arrested person.
The father of the minor girl had also told the media that the woman’s allegations of harassment were false as she had come to the police station when he was present there.
“Her brother abducted my minor girl and her husband facilitated the abduction. Now she is trying to divert the public attention from the crime committed by her brother and facilitated by her husband,” the abducted girl’s father had said.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Tuesday deputed Rural Development Minister Ali Muhammad Sagar, Education Minister Peerzada Muhammad Sayeed, Director General of Police Kuldeep Khoda, Kashmir Divisional Commissioner Masuad Samoon and Inspector General of Police (Kashmir Zone) B. Srinivas to express grief to the bereaved families and to meet local officials and senior citizens in the town.
After talking to Baramulla residents and the officials, the ministers said the chief minister was grieved at the loss of lives in the town and a magisterial probe had already been ordered by the local district magistrate.
The probe would ascertain if the security forces had used excessive and unwarranted force in tackling the law and order situation in the town and also look into the woman’s complaint of harassment which had triggered the protests.
If anyone among the security forces is found guilty of having violated the standard operating procedure and use of excessive and unwarranted force, he would be sternly dealt with, the ministers assured the locals.
Meanwhile, protests were also held in Pulwama and Shopian in south Kashmir and Bandipora in north Kashmir.
Reports said over two dozen policemen and protesters had been injured in intermittent clashes between the troops and the stone-throwing agitators.
The three-day strike called by the hardliner Hurriyat group led by Syed Ali Geelani affected life across the Kashmir Valley as markets, public transport, banks and educational institutions remained closed.
The annual Amarnath Yatra, however, continued smoothly from both the north Kashmir Baltal and south Kashmir Pahalgam routes.
—IANS