Curfew continues in major towns of Kashmir

Meanwhile, Yasir Hamid Sheikh, cousin of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Mohammad Yaseen Malik, succumbed to injuries at a private hospital in New Delhi in the wee hours of Thursday, said party spokesman Altaf Khan.

Sheikh, 22, was critically injured when a policeman allegedly opened fire on a group of youth at Maisuma locality in the heart of the city, which also houses the headquarters of the JKLF, on August 30. The incident had sparked off protests even as the authorities had suspended the accused policeman and ordered a probe into the circumstances leading to the firing by the policeman.

Sheikh was shifted to a private hospital in New Delhi for specialised treatment on September 9 on the advice of the doctors at the SMHS hospital, after his condition deteriorated, Khan said. Barring a clash in Sopore and an arson incident in Wagoora, the situation in curfew-bound Kashmir valley remained by and large peaceful, officials said.

They said hundreds of youth defied curfew and staged a demonstration at Sopore town in Baramulla district on Thursday morning. However, the protestors were chased by the police, using batons and teargas shells. No one was injured in the fresh clash in the town, which was rocked by violent protests following the death of a person identified as Mudassir Ahmad at Batapora locality on Wednesday evening.

The protestors had torched the single storey building of the State Road Transport Corporation in the town on Wednesday night, the officials said. They said some people also set ablaze a block development office at Wagoora in north and pelted stones on the houses of two senior police officers at Awantipora and Kulgam on Wednesday night, damaging window panes.

A police spokesman said six policemen were injured in stone-pelting by a mob in Handwara, 80 kms from Srinagar, in Kupwara district late on Wednesday evening.

He said curfew continues in Srinagar city, Sopore town, Kupwara district town, Kralpora, Trehgam, Bandipora district town and Tangmarg in North Kashmir, Ganderbal district town and adjoining Kangan town, Budgam district in central Kashmir, Awantipora, Lethpora, Pampore, Pulwama district town, Shopian district town, Kulgam district town, Qoimoh, Anantnag district town and adjoining Bijbehara town.