One person was critically wounded when police opened fire and resorted to teargas and baton charges on a violent mob near the site of a daylong encounter between security forces and Lashkar-e-Tayiba militants in Khar Mohalla near Puchal in south Kashmir Pulwama district on Thursday evening.
The violence erupted immediately after the security forces gunned down a top local LeT commander in the daylong gunfight. Army and police had jointly surrounded a house in Khar Mohalla village early on Thursday morning, following specific information about the presence of a group of LeT militants inside it.
"The holed up militants were challenged to surrender upon which they opened fire at the surrounding troops of Rashtriya Rifles and police. A gunfight ensued at the end of which district commander of the LeT outfit identified as Shakoor Ahmad Teli alias Abu Bakar was killed", a police handout said.
As the gunfight ended, hundreds of villagers thronged the streets raising pro-freedom slogans and indulged in heavy stone pelting on the police. The mob also torched a police vehicle and damaged another, forcing the security forces to use baton charges and teargas to disperse the mobs.
Police opened fire to control the unruly mobs resulting in critical injury to a civilian who was shifted to Srinagar for specialised treatment. At least nine cops including the local station house officer were injured. Authorities rushed more reinforcements to the village to restore order. The mobs snatched the body and took it in a procession for burial.
Thursday's violence comes close on the heels of the unease that hit Kashmir Valley following the custodial death of a 27-year-old youth in north Kashmir Sopore town early this week.