Fresh violence in Kashmir; toll rises to 32 on third day
At least 31 civilians and a police driver have been killed in clashes between the security forces and angry young demonstrators
SRINAGAR: Amid recurring clashes in curfew-bound Indianadministered Kashmir, three injured protesters died in hospitals here on Monday, taking the death toll to 32 in three days of bloodshed following the killing of a top rebel.
And for the first time, police opened fire hitting two civilians in embattled Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s hometown Bijbehara in southern parts, which has accounted for all the deaths bar one since Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani was killed by security forces on Friday.
At least 31 civilians and a police driver have been killed in clashes between the security forces and angry young demonstrators across the Indian-administered region since Saturday, various informed sources said. But police put the death toll at 23.
There were no fresh deaths on Monday. But the sources said nine more casualties were added to the toll after at least three people succumbed to injuries and five who had died earlier were counted on Friday. Clashes, however, raged on in many parts of the valley as young men armed with rocks defied prohibitory orders to hurl stones at police and paramilitary pickets.
Bijbehara, Mehbooba Mufti’s hometown, some 40km from here towards the south of the valley, was the latest to be consumed by the clashes, police sources said. Sources in Srinagar’s S.M.H.S. Hospital said two civilians with bullet injuries were admitted on Monday afternoon and both were from Bijbehara. “One of them was hit in the stomach and other in his left thigh,” a doctor said requesting anonymity.
Police sources said a mob set ablaze a police picket in Lassipora in Pulwama district in south areas. Sopore, Handwara, Bandipora and Baramulla in northern parts also witnessed stone throwing incidents. Another police camp was set on fire in the north’s Sopore town.
Normal life across the valley was paralysed for the third day amid strict curfew and a separatist-called shutdown.
Public transport went off the roads. Private cars plied at some places in areas where there were no restrictions. Shops and other businesses remained shut. Government offices and banks were also closed.