Summary The mobile and internet services also remained off for 10th straight day.
SRINAGAR (Web Desk) - In occupied Kashmir, curfew remained in place in all 10 districts across the Valley for the 10 consecutive day on Monday following the extrajudicial killing of alleged Hizbul Mujahideen commander, Burhan Wani, by Indian troops on July 8.
According to Kashmir Media Service, people defied curfew at many places and staged pro-freedom protests and engaged forces in pitched battles yesterday.
They were protesting against the killing of at least 45 people and injuries to 3500 in the forces’ firing on the protesters since the Burhan’s killing.
Eight persons including a lady sustained bullet and pellet injuries when, according to police version, a group of protestors tried to attack an army camp at Saderkoot, Bala, in Bandipora. “The injured were shifted to Soura medical hospital where condition of one of the youth was critical,” witnesses said. The situation in the area was tense after the forces’ firing.
Witnesses said that forces fired pellets on protesters at Rainawari in old city. A youth identified as Danish sustained pellet injuries. He was moved to a hospital. Protests erupted at Safa Kadal area of old Srinagar where forces fired pellets at youth, injuring two of them. Clashes erupted at Arampora Sopore, in which four youth sustained pellet injuries and two of whom were referred to Srinagar for treatment.
Reports about clashes also poured in from Palhallan and old town areas of Baramulla district. Clashes were reported from Islamabad town, Iqbalabad, Khanabal and some old town areas. Tight curfew remained in place in other districts that include Kupwara, Ganderbal and Budgam and South Kashmir’s towns including Islamabad, Bijbehara, Mattan, Kaimoh, Pulwama, Kakpora, Pampore, Awantipora and Shopian.
Restrictions were also imposed in far-off areas like Pahalgam, Kokernag, Dooru, Verinag and Qazigund.
The mobile and internet services also remained off for 10th straight day.
Protest demonstrations were held in Tral town and adjoining Batgund village. Youth clashed with forces who lobbed teargas shells and used pepper gas. Reports of protests and clashes were also witnessed from several areas of Pulwama district.
The death of 22-year-old Wani, a poster boy for the region’s biggest separatist group, has sparked the deadliest clashes in occupied Kashmir since 2010 when massive demonstrations were held against Indian rule.
Hizbul Mujahideen is one of several separatist groups which have been fighting for decades against the hundreds of thousands of Indian troops deployed in the disputed region.
Tens of thousands have died in the fighting since 1989.
Kashmir has been divided between rivals India and Pakistan since their independence from Britain in 1947, but both claim the picturesque Himalayan territory in its entirety.
