3 civilians killed in Valley
Tensions rise ahead of Wani’s death anniversary
Srinagar: Three civilians were killed allegedly in firing by security forces during clashes with stone-pelting protesters in Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir, police said. Clashes broke out between protestors and security forces in Hawoora Mishipora village in Qoimoh area of Kulgam in south Kashmir, a police official said here. He said they used force to disperse the protestors and three people were killed, official said.
Three youths, including a girl, were on Saturday killed and two others wounded in the Army firing on protesters in Jammu and Kashmir’s southern Kulgam district on Saturday.
The incident occurred amid rising tensions in the Valley ahead of the second death anniversary of Hizb-ulMujahideen commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani.
Wani was along with two other militants killed by the Army in Kokernag area of Anantnag on July 8, 2016, sparking off widespread unrest in Kashmir Valley and Chenab valley areas of Jammu region which continued for about six months during which more than 80 people were killed.
The witnesses said that the Army arrived in Hawoora village of Kulgam’s Redwani area on Saturday reportedly to conduct searches following reports about the presence of separatist militants. But the troops were confronted by surging crowds which allegedly hurled rocks at their vehicles amid chants of “we want freedom”.
The Army fired live ammunition to quell the mob, injuring, at least, five people. All of them were rushed to a medical facility in neighbouring Frisal area where the doctors declared three of them brought dead. The slain have been identified as Shakir Ahmed Khanday, 22, Irshad Ahmed, 20 and Andleeb Jan, 16 — all residents of Hawoora.
Thousands of people attended their funeral, the witnesses said. A report said that two masked gunmen also appeared at the scene and offered the slain a gun salute.
Two seriously injured youth have been brought to Srinagar for specialised treatment at a local hospital.
A statement issued by the J&K Police here said that an Army patrol moving through Hawoora Mishipora area on Saturday afternoon was pelted by miscreants. “Consequently the Army tried to disperse the miscreants and in the process five individuals sustained injuries,” it said adding that the injured were evacuated to a nearby hospital where three of them including a girl succumbed.
The statement further said that the police has started investigation into the matter.
Meanwhile, a shutdown called by an alliance of key separatist leaders against shifting of Syedah Aasiyah Andrabi, the leader of rightwing all-women Dukhtaran-eMillat (daughters of the faith), along with her two associates, to Delhi by National Investigation Agency (NIA) brought life to a standstill across the Kashmir Valley on Saturday.
Fifty-six-year-old Andrabi and her aides Nahida Nasreen and Sofi Fahmeeda were on Friday sent to 10 days NIA remand by a Patiala House court. The NIA had sought the custody of the three charged with funding for terror.