20 shops, 4 houses, patrol pump, hotel set on fire; Army called in
Additional Deployment of army rushed from Jammu
By News Agency of Kashmir,
Kishtwar : Two persons, including a minor, were killed and more than fifty persons were injured following a communal clash which broke out in mountainous Kishtwar town of Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday.
Eyewitnesses revealed that the clashes broke out when some unidentified persons lobbed at least two hand grenades on a mob which was protesting against the police firing and killing of a senior separatist leader in Kashmir on Monday.
Giving details one of the eyewitnesses told News Agency of Kashmir that hundreds of people took to street in curfew bound Kishtwar town to protest against the killing of senior separatist leader in Kashmir.
People assembled at Chowgan, the historical playground in the area, and marched towards Jamia Masjid area, where Gaibana Nimaz-e-Jinaza of Sheikh Abdul Aziz was to be performed.
“As the protestors reached near Hydial Chowk, some people from the other community pelted stones”, Ghulam Abbas, one of the injured protestor said. He added that as the two sides resorted to stone pelting on each other, police opened fire on the protestors leaving more than a dozen injured.
“The gun shots were followed by at least two grenade blasts in the middle of the mob which created panic and people started running for safety”, he added.
Sources revealed that more than fourty persons were injured in the grenade blasts. The injured were shifted to District Hospital Kishtwar for treatment.
One of the injured youth, identified as Muhammad Maqbool Kripak, succumbed to his injuries in the hospital. However, doctors said that Kripak had received a bullet injury in the leg and he probably died on the cardiac arrest.
As the town was gripped in communal frenzy and armed mobs resorted to arson, an eleven year old boy was shot dead by some unidentified assailants in Butt Gali area of the town. Identified as Shabir the minor was reportedly working as domestic help with a local resident and was standing on a road side when he was shot dead from a point blank range.
Reports said that both the communities resorted to arson and targeted each other’s property in the heart of the city.
Four houses of a particular community were also set on fire while the inmates were beaten to pulp. One of them Haji Abdul Aziz Gagroo was stated to be in critical condition. He is more than sixty year old.
Houses of Mushtaq Ahmed Hap, Faizulah Sheikh, Abdul Rashid Bhat, Abdul Aziz Gagroo and more than five vehicles were completely damaged, sources told NAK.
“After the clash member of one community assembled at General Bus Stand and set ablaze more than twenty shops of the other community”, sources said adding that on the other side violent mob also set ablaze a patrol pump and a hotel (Chowgan hotel) owned by members of other community.
Late evening reports revealed that some unidentified gunmen opened fire on a group of youth injuring five of them. Their identification could not be ascertained immediately.
As the situation went out of control, army was called in to assist the police to maintain law and order.
Additional deployment of army has been flown to Kishtwar, official sources told News Agency of Kashmir.
They said that the situation was tense in the area but army and police was well under control.
The government hospital remained flooded with the injured and doctors and para-medicos had a tough time to deal with the situation. Sources said that eleven critically injured persons were later airlifted to Government Medical College Hospital Jammu.