18 arrested for assault on three Army personnel in Baramulla

Ishfaq Tantry

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, October 21

Eighteen persons were arrested in north Kashmir for labelling three Army men as alleged braid-choppers and assaulting them.

The Territorial Army men were assaulted “mercilessly” by an unruly mob on October 18 in a marketplace in Sheeri village of Baramulla in north Kashmir after they were branded as alleged braid-choppers by a “notorious stone-thrower,” Qaiser Bilal Bhat, said Imtiyaz Hussain, SSP, Baramulla. He added that the police had so far arrested 18 accused, including the main conspirators in the case, and also recovered looted cash, ATM cards and mobile phones from them.

Even as the police are still clueless in most of the cases and have dismissed the incidents as mass hysteria, a large majority of fear-stricken residents refuse to accept that the “braid-chopping” could be linked to any psychiatric disorder.

Meanwhile, the authorities today imposed restrictions in areas falling under the jurisdiction of seven police stations in Srinagar to quell the protests in the wake of a separatist-called shutdown against the alleged braid-chopping cases.

In response to the call, shops, business establishments, public transport and educational institutes in Srinagar and other parts of Kashmir remained closed today. However, private cars were seen plying in the city and elsewhere.