Click to play videoSrinagar/Jammu/New Delhi: The situation in Jammu and Kashmir is spiralling out of control after 13 people were killed and scores injured as crowds defied curfew and poured out on to the streets and clashed with troops.
Clashes took place on Tuesday after locals came out on the streets to protest against the death of Hurriyat leader Sheikh Abdul Aziz in police firing on Monday. The protestors were demanding the release of Hurriyat leaders from house arrest so that they could participate in the last rights of the deceased leader.
Three people were killed and at least seven were injured at Bandipura, as Army opened fire on protestors, who defied curfew. Incidents of firing were reported from the town of Nagabal.
In Lasjan, three people were killed when the armed guard of senior People's Democratic Party (PDP) leader Javaid Mustafa Mir fired in panic when the former minister was attacked by a mob. Initial reports from Sringar suggest that the firing in the Lasjan area was accidental. Seven policemen, including an IPS officer, were injured.
Earlier, one person was reportedly injured after the police opened fire on protestors as the army held a flag march in Baramullah. Meanwhile, a communal clash has broken out in Kishtwar, in Doda district. Two people have been killed and at least 50 have been injured in the clashes.
In Bandipora, three people were killed when the army fired at people defying curfew. CRPF troopers also fired at a mob in the Nagabal area of north Kashmir Ganderbal district killing one person on the spot.
One child was killed when the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force opened fire to disperse an unruly mob at Rainawari in the old Srinagar area. There was trouble in the Kralpora area just outside Srinagar as well where one person was killed.
Elsewhere, mobs torched some houses and destroyed vehicles in their rage against the economic blockade of the valley following the prolonged protests in Jammu.
Doctors in city hospitals said more than 70 people had been admitted with injuries.
District Collector Kishtwar, Sudarshan Kumar SAID, "From the morning, the mob is protesting against the Army firing in Baramullah on Monday. Those who have been injured have been rushed to a nearby hospital."
Meanwhile thousands of protesters reached the residence of the moderate Hurriyat Conference chief, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq - breaking the cordon imposed by the security forces who had been keeping him under house arrest - many others did the same to let Syed Ali Geelani, head of the hardline Hurriyat, out of his Hyderpora home.
Both led marches to the Jamia Mosque, where the funeral of Hurriyat leader Sheikh Abdul Aziz is being held.
A large procession led by the separatist Shia leader Aga Hassan Badgami also marched towards the Jamia mosque from Badgam district. Aziz was killed along with four others while leading a huge procession towards Muzaffarabad in Pakistan administered Kashmir in an effort to neutralise the valley's economic blockade.
On Monday evening, indefinite curfew had been imposed throughout the valley -- in the summer capital Srinagar and in the district headquarters of Baramulla, Bandipora, Kupwara, Ganderbal, Anantnag, Pulwama, Shopian, Badgam and Kulgam.
The Economics of Discontent
PDP President Mehbooba Mufti has said that the Centre needs to remove the economic blockade in the state. She said that Monday's protests were not being held under a curfew - unlike in Jammu - and that the protestors had no weapons on them. She maintained that the people were protesting peacefully.
"We have to understand the reasons for the protests by the Kashmiri people. They have been facing shortage of essential items like medicines. The Centre needs to do something to effectively remove the economic blockade," she said.
"Secondly, there should be a serious commitment from the Prime Minister that this route which has opened by him is going to become a formal trade route, just like in any other part of the country. Thirdly, any decision regarding the Shrine Board land has to be taken after dialogue with the civil society," she added.
Meanwhile, the Spokesperson of the Shri Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti, Jeetendra Singh said the order for the land transfer was revoked without taking the people into confidence.
"The core issue is the transfer of the land to the Amarnath Shrine Board and the order which was revoked at the behest of certain Kashmiri parties including the PDP and the National Conference. This has to be cancelled. The modalities have to be discussed by the Government of India," he said.
"As far as the Sangharsh committee is concerned, it is a composition of all the constituents of various sections of society in Jammu. It has representatives from the lawyer community, from traders and the business community. It has the support of the medical fraternity. If Mehbooba Mufti says that the civil society of Kashmir should also be involved in the dialogue process, then that is the prerogative of the Government of India. But when the order was revoked, the civil society of Jammu was never taken into confidence," he added.
He said that violence broke out only after provocative statements were made by certain PDP and National Conference leaders.
Capital Concern
In New Delhi, a worried Prime Minister called for another all-party meeting on Wednesday to hammer out a viable formula that could be acceptable to both Jammu as well as Kashmir. Party leaders, who had met last week, met again on Tuesday to discuss the issue but to no avail.
"The leaders met on Tuesday but could not arrive at a workable formula or solution that would appease the people," a senior Government official was quoted by news agencies as saying.
An all-party meeting chaired by Home Minister, Shivraj Patil has ended inconclusively.
Jammu Vs Kashmir
For the last two months, both regions have been locked in unparalleled strife along communal lines over the transfer and subsequent revocation of 40 hectares of land in north Kashmir to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) that manages the pilgrimage to the shrine dedicated to Lord Shiva.
This burning issue has set off an inexorable wave of protests, shutdowns and violence first in the Kashmir Valley, then in Jammu -- and now back in the Valley - paralysing the state.
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