By Agence India Press,Bureau Report,
Srinagar: A 30-year-old youth has been killed in police and CRPF firing in Zadoora Pulwama district in south Kashmir.
The youth has been identified as Shabir Ahmed of Lonepora Newa in Pulwama.
Shabir had sustained critical injuries when police and CRPF opened fire on peaceful protesters near Puwlama Degree College this afternoon. He was rushed to SMHS hospital where he succumbed.
“Shabbir had recieved a bullet in his neck and died at the hospital, said doctor at SMHS.
More than 50 people and 4 others have been critically wounded in police and paramilitary Force firing in Zardora of Pulwama district. The firing and heavy teargas shelling took place in Wagun area of the district.
Several people have been brought to the hospital, out of which five are in critical condition.
Three of the critical have been rushed to Srinagar. According to reports, thousands of demonstrators marched from Zadoora-Newa area of Pulwama towards Pulwama town on Thursday to attend the (Rasm-i-Chaharum) fourth day mourning of Muhammad Yaqoob Bhat, killed on Sunday there in firing, is being observed today and paramilitary and police forces stopped the march near the Degree College Pulwama and asked the marchers to disperse.
Eyewitnesses told Agence India Press that police and paramilitary forces fired several rounds of bullets in the air to quell the marchers, who, in response sat on the road there and staged a protest.
The demonstrators demand to be allowed to march to the town and continued to sit on the road till this report was being filed.
The fresh violence in Kashmir claimed its 48th victim since June 11 when a civilian on Thursday succumbed to a bullet injury he received during protests by forces in Srinagar on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Thursday told a delegation of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, including legislators from Jammu and Kashmir, that the government’s first priority was restoration of peace and stability in the troubled state and nothing would be done to demoralise the security forces stationed there.
Senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj said the prime minister also assured the party delegation that the government had no hesitation in calling an all-party meeting to discuss the situation in the troubled state.
Swaraj, who was part of the delegation that also comprised leaders L.K. Advani and Arun Jaitley, said that some decisions of the state government over the past few months had impacted the morale of the security forces.
She said the party had demanded an all-party meeting to discuss the situation.
‘The prime minister’s attitude to our demands was positive,’ Swaraj said.
She said Manmohan Singh had told the delegation that the government’s priority was to restore peace in the state and it was not thinking of any package now.
BJP legislative party leader in the state assembly Chaman Lal Gupta said the situation in the state had not been created in a day, and both the central and state governments had contributed to worsening of the problem.
He said that inquiries had been repeatedly instituted against security forces which had put them in a defensive mode. ‘They are saving themselves rather than dealing with the situation,’ he said.
He said army troops had been withdrawn from Doda, Rajouri and Poonch districts of Jammu region and there was reduction of forces in the Valley also.
He also criticised plans to rehabilitate those who had left for Pakistan-administered Kashmir and said the government should keep a tight vigil on the way money sent to the state was spent.
Gupta said that the government had to keep in mind the resolution of parliament of Jammu and Kashmir being an integral part of the country while finding a solution to the problem.
In their letter to the prime minister, the BJP MLAs said there was ‘near anarchy’ in the state since June 11.