Clashes between protesters and the security forces erupted again in Srinagar and Sopore on Friday when protesters pelted stones at security personnel deployed locally after Friday prayers. Such clashes, though otherwise takes place frequently in Jammu and Kashmir, had stopped over the past couple of months, leading the existing curfew to be lifted in the Valley.
In Srinagar
A Greater Kashmir report said the clashes broke out in the Nowhatta area of Srinagar soon after Hurriyat hawk Mirwaiz Umar Farooq addressed people outside a mosque after delivering his Friday sermon. It is yet to be ascertained whether he instigated the mob.
The report quoted eyewitnesses as saying that after the protesters began chanting anti-India slogans, the police and paramilitary forces "fired several teargas canisters" to disperse them.
In Sopore
According to the local police from the Baramulla district of J&K: "Immediately after the culmination of Friday congregational prayers, some miscreants in order to intimidate civilians started disrupting normal life by pelting stones upon the deployment at Bada Bazaar Sopore."
Police sources added that the stone-pelting resulted in a nine-year-old boy named Mursaleen Azad Dar, who was passing by, being hit on the head and sustaining an injury. He was rushed to a hospital for treatment. The police in Sopore have registered a case in this regard and are investigating it.
