Clashes in Valley against Op Clean-up

Srinagar, May 5

Clashes erupted between protesters and security forces in the Valley against the massive crackdown, “Operation Clean-up”, to flush out militants in more than 20 villages of south Kashmir’s Shopian district.

Protests were held after the Friday congregational prayers in the Nowhatta area of downtown Srinagar, where the main mosque, Jamia Masjid is located. Soon after the prayers, groups of masked youth took to streets and indulged in stone-throwing on the police and the CRPF men deployed in the area. However, there were no immediate reports of any damage or injuries to anyone.

The police lobbed teargas shells to quell the demonstrators who took to streets in the Sopore town of north Kashmir’s Baramulla district. The protests, which took off from the main mosque, also spread to other areas of the town giving a tough time to the police forces to restore normalcy. All the shops and business establishments were closed down due to the trouble. Meanwhile, a shutdown was observed in Shopian to mourn the death of a civilian driver, Nazir Ahmad Sheikh, who died when suspected militants attacked an Army patrol at Kellora in Shopian last evening. .

Demonstrations were also held at different places in the city and elsewhere in major towns of the Valley on the joint call of separatist leaders — Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik. They called for protest against the alleged use of “excessive force” against the civilians, students and detention of separatists. — TNS