Kashmir violence: 4 killed in police firing

Shravan Krushna Navami

Srinagar (J&K): Four people were killed and 70 injured as security forces opened fired to quell violent protesters in curfew-bound Kashmir Valley where authorities thwarted a planned rally by arresting several separatist leaders.

A mob took Deputy Commissioner of Bandipora Mushtaq Ahmad hostage at Hajan, forcing the police to open fire, official sources said, adding that a youth identified as Shahid Ahmad Pahloo was killed in the incident.

Ahmad had gone to the area to enquire about the firing in the area in which 24 people, including three policemen and a CRPF jawan, were injured, sources said.

An official spokesman had, earlier, claimed that the protesters had opened fire on the CRPF personnel forcing them to retaliate.

Two youths– Showkat Ahmad Khanday and Basit Bashir– were killed in firing by security forces to disperse stone-pelting mobs which defied curfew at Narbal on the outskirts of the city and in Pulwama town respectively, official sources said.

At Chootipora village in Kupwara district, an 18-year-old girl identified as Fehmeeda was killed when a bullet hit her during police firing, sources said, adding that the incident was being investigated.

With the death of four people, the toll has risen to five with at least 110 injured since Sunday when curfew was clamped on all 10 districts of the Valley to prevent the march by separatists to Lal Chowk in the heart of Srinagar.

While separatist leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq were arrested from their residences late last night, JKLF leader Mohammad Yasin Malik was taken into custody this morning as he tried to defy curfew and move to Lal Chowk, sources said.

Source: Times of India

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