Kashmir on August 22.2010

8 injured in relative ‘peaceful’ Kashmir

PAK flag hoisted, removed in Srinagar

Srinagar, August 22: At least eight persons sustained injuries when security forces opened rubber pallets to disperse a stone-pelting mob during removal of flag of Pakistan Administered Kashmir in Chattabal area in civil lines here. Elsewhere situation remained peace amid continuous curfew and separatists sponsored shutdown on Sunday.

Official sources said that police and security forces came under an attack by a group of stone-pelting youth as soon as the joint team was removing flag of PAK hoisted in Channa Mohalla area in Chattabal locality, four kilometers from Lal Chowk, the nerve centre of this summer capital.

While the flag was removed, they said security forces fired rubber pallets through its new artillery ‘pump action’ gun to disperse the stone throwing mob. Eight persons were injured in the action, officials said. Five of the injured sustained wounds in the leg while remaining had it above abdomen, they added.

The wounded, who have been hospitalized, were identified as Mukhtar Ahmad Mir son Habibullah, Bashir Ahmad son of Ghulam Nabi, Tanveer Najar son of Abdul Rehman, Mohammad Maqbool Ganie son of Abdul Ahad, Mukhtar Ahmad, Javed Ahmad Sofi, Zahoor Ahmad and Mehraj-ud-Din son of Abdul Rahman.

“Condition of all of them is reported to be out of danger,” a police spokesman here said.

Apart of this incident, a report of stone-pelting protests was received from Alialpora Shopian in Southern Kashmir. The mob was chased by police, the spokesman said.

Barring these sporadic incident, there was no report about any major untoward incident anywhere in Valley where curfew and shutdown paralyzed life for yet another day since unrest began June 11.

Curfew remained imposed in many parts of Srinagar, entire Sopore town in North Kashmir, Anantnag and Bijbehara towns in the south while as it was promulgated in frontier Trehgam.

In Srinagar, the curfew remained in force in Batamloo, Bemina, Qamarwari, Kralkhud, Nowhatta, Khanyar, M R Gunj, Safakadal, Rainawari, Maisuma, Shaheedgunj and Abi-guzar area of police station, Kothibagh.

In Northern Kashmir, curfew remained imposed in Sopore in Baramulla and Trehgam in Kupwara district.

The clampdown remained in force at Islamabad and Bijbehara towns as a precautionary measure following the death of two persons in police firing on violent protesters day before yesterday in South Kashmir. Elsewhere, tough restrictions and shutdown threw life put of gear.

Shops, banks, educational institutions and private offices remained closed and all modes of transport remained off the roads.

Meanwhile, police detained six of at least forty persons rounded up during the first crackdown in more than decade in Bemina area here.