Fresh clashes claim 2 youth in Jammu and Kashmir

Sayar Ahmad Sheikh was hit by a tear smoke shell in the head at Tukroo when security personnel were trying to disperse a group of stone-pelting protestors, a police official said. Restrictions are in place in the area under Section 144 of CrPC, which prohibits assembly of four or more people. The official said Sheikh was rushed to the sub-district hospital at Rajpora where doctors declared him brought dead. 

Another youth, Yawar Bhat, died in security forces’ action after protestors indulged in stone pelting at Botengoo in Anantnag district, the official said. Bhat sustained pellet injuries during the clashes, he said. With this, the toll in the unrest has now risen to 77.

Several other persons were injured in the two incidents. Clashes were also reported from the old city area and Budgam district, where at least a dozen people have been injured, he said. The situation across the valley continues to be tense, he added. 

Separatists should have put across an implementable roadmap for resolution of Kashmir issue instead of shying away from meeting the all-party delegation and being “caught in darkness”, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has said. 

She also voiced hope that the Centre will initiate an inclusive engagement through an institutionalised mechanism to address the Kashmir issue and the separatists will respond positively to it. 

“Instead of being caught in darkness, the separatists should have met the members of the all-party delegation and put across an implementable roadmap for the resolution of the (Kashmir) issue,” the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister was quoted as saying at a function here on Friday. She said, “By shying away from talks, a message has gone around that the separatists are not interested in ending the people’s miseries by coming forward for peaceful resolution of the issue,” according to an official statement. 

Separatist leaders had refused to meet some of the MPs of the all-party delegation who had reached out to them during its visit to the state on September 4-5.