Clashes in Valley again after curfew lifted for a brief while
SRINAGAR: Even as the situation in the rest of Kashmir normalised, protests erupted again in its northern district of Kupwara on Monday after curfew restrictions were briefly lifted in the district after five days.
As soon as the authorities relaxed curfew from 8am, scores of youth in Handwara came out to protest the killings of five persons by security forces. The protesters were demanding the removal of an army bunker from Handwara town. Police and CRPF personnel used force and fired teargas shells to disperse them.
Clashes between youth and security forces broke out in Kupwara’s Tehgam and Kralgund areas. “To prevent escalation of protests and deterioration of law and order, restrictions under section 144 were again imposed in the district,” said a police official.
Hundreds of students of the University of Kashmir in Hazratbal assembled on campus and held a protest rally against the civilian killings in Kupwara.
The students gathered outside the humanities department and marched through the campus, shouting anti-government and anti-army slogans. They were demanding action against the security forces’ personnel who opened fire during protests and killed five persons.
They were also angry over the “muted response” of people outside the state towards the killings.
Similar protests were also held in the Islamic University of Science and Technology in Awantipora.
The situation in the Valley became restive after two youth and a woman were killed when security forces opened fire on protesters in Handwara on April 12 after a girl alleged molestation by an army personnel. OUTSIDERS, LOCALS CLASH AT UNIVERSITY
Clashes erupted in Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University in Rajouri on Monday as two groups of students attacked each other with stones and set four vehicles on fire. Police rushed to the university to bring the situation under control. “There were clashes between two groups of students (locals and those from the Valley) on the university campus over some issue,” DIG Poonch Rajouri range, Johny Williams, said.
He said university authorities would sort out the issue.
(With PTI inputs)