“We have widened the curfew to ensure a violence-free Friday,” a police officer, who declined to be named, told an agency. Each civilian death has sparked a new cycle of violence since the first killing of a 17-year old student by a police teargas shell during protests on June 11 in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir.
Hardline separatists urged residents to march to the region’s revered Muslim shrine of Hazratbal in Srinagar on Friday. Two men and a woman were killed in the city on Tuesday.
“Whenever the curfew is relaxed in any of the areas, people are requested to come out on the streets and continue with a peaceful sit-in,” a statement by the hardliners said. The army was called in on Wednesday in Srinagar after residents defied curfew restrictions and held protests.
No local newspapers hit the stands for the second day running amid tight restrictions on the local and international media. The state’s Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, under pressure to contain the violence, held a meeting with top police and intelligence officials on Friday, a police source said. Top leaders in the ruling Congress party also met in New Delhi to be briefed by Home Minister P Chidambaram, Press Trust of Indian news agency reported. Meanwhile, the Hizbul Mujahideen is behind stone pelting incidents in Kashmir, which took place last week in the valley, said media reports on Friday.Earlier, police today arrested one of the two activists of hardline Hurriyat Conference, who were allegedly involved in a conspiracy to engineer violence in Kashmir.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 10th, 2010.
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