By IANS,
Srinagar : Violent anti-poll protests in the Jammu and Kashmir summer capital Sunday left 10 people, including a paramilitary officer, injured, officials said.
Deputy commandant of India Reserve Police (IRP) and his three guards were injured when people in old city areas took to the streets in the afternoon as soon as four-day-long strict security restrictions were lifted.
Curfew-like restrictions were in place in downtown areas since Thursday as pro-separatists protested holding elections in the state.
On Sunday when the restrictions were relaxed, hundreds of protestors pelted stones at police and paramilitary troopers.
Police fired warning shots and tear smoke and baton charged the protestors to disperse them. Six protests were injured.
Shouting anti-poll slogans, the protestors attacked and “badly damaged” a vehicle, in which the paramilitary troopers were travelling, in Nowhatta close to Jamia Masjid, police said.
The injured cops have been hospitalised.
Security in Srinagar, which votes May 7, has been upped. Thousands of security men are deployed across the constituency.
Ruling National Conference president Farooq Abdullah is contesting against one time friend and prominent Shia leader Iftikhar Hussain Ansari of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).