Srinagar, Oct 01, KONS: Clashes and firing left half-a-dozen persons injured in Kashmir on Friday as a strict government curfew choked a Hurriyat (G) reprieve in strike, while mobs ripped off the railway track outside Srinagar and the government forces ransacked a number of open shops in retaliation.
Top separatist leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Agha Syed Hassan were held under house arrest, and Friday prayers could not be held at the central Jamia Masjid and numerous other mosques once more due to a total siege, while the police again seized newspapers published from Srinagar, preventing their circulation.
Authorities put Kashmir under a siege again today, sealing off streets and crossing in the summer capital and barring vehicular movement on inter-distract routes.
Children heading for schools in the morning due to a break in strike by the Hurriyat (G) were turned back by the forces deployed in the streets, and teachers too were barred from proceeding for work despite government assurances that their identity cards would be treated as curfew passes.
Clashes erupted in the Chattabal area of upper Srinagar as groups of youth defied curfew to take out a procession, which the police and the paramilitary men deployed in the streets barred, trying to break up the demonstration.
This prompted the protestors to retaliate with stone-pelting, leading to prolonged clashes which the forces gradually quelled by enforcing strict restrictions and confining people indoors.
FIRING IN ISLAMABAD
Half-a-dozen persons were injured in the Malak Naag area of Islamabad when the police and the paramilitary forces opened fire on protestors who had turned violent on being attacked with cane charges and tear gas.
A large number of protestors had come into the streets chanting pro-freedom slogans after Friday prayers, but were blocked by the forces with cane-charges, enraging the former who retaliated with stone-pelting.
The forces then opened fire on the crowds, leaving several persons injured.
One f the injured, Nazir Ahmad Mir, had suffered gunshot wounds in the abdomen , and doctors at the local hospital sent to Srinagar for treatment because of his serious condition.
The violence spread to Laasibal and adjoining areas, and the clashes continued for some time.
Reports said that the schools in the Mattan, Achabal, Dooru, Shangus, Verinag, Kokernag, Wailu, Qazigund and other areas functioned normally.
RAIL TRACK UPROOTED
Angry mobs uprooted the railway track at Machoo on the outskirts of Srinagar, disrupting train services which had been resumed on a trial basis.
The police and the paramilitary men went into action against the mobs, breaking them up with cane-charges and tear gas.
The forces were reported to have assaulted a number of shops in the vicinity later, ransacking their goods.
