Adil Lateef
SRINAGAR, May 4: For third consecutive week, there is no let up in student protests in Kashmir valley as at least 45 persons including 25 security personnel and 19 students were injured during stone-throwing clashes between students and security forces in northern Baramulla district while similar clash erupted in Gogji Bagh area of Srinagar.
Dozens of students of Degree College Sopore assembled on their campus and started massive sloganeering against the State and police. However, the police were already deployed outside and they fired teargas canisters towards the youth, ensuing clashes between the two sides.
As time passed, the clashes intensified and later the students of Sopore Girls Higher Secondary School (GHSS) also staged protests inside their school. The students later marched towards Sopore Town where police fired teargas shells towards them, the witnesses said, adding that students along with some boys retaliated with stones, ensuing clashes.
During the teargas shelling, some girl students fainted while some others sustained minor injuries during the chaos. As the news about the teargas shelling on girl students spread, shopkeepers downed their shutters in Main Market while locals also joined the student protesters in protests. The clashes between students and security forces erupted in many localities of Sopore Town.
At least 19 students and one lady suffered injuries in the clashes while some of them were hospitalized. The lady was shifted to Srinagar for specialized treatment. A police official said 25 police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) men were injured in the clashes. Due to tense situation, additional contingents of security forces were deployed all across the Sopore Town to prevent further protests. The situation in Sopore remained tense till late in the evening.
The students of Government Polytechnic College in Gogji Bagh here today against staged protests in the afternoon. The students came out of their college and pelted stones on security forces. Police rushed to the spot and started chasing students who pelted in stones retaliation. The clashes between the two sides continued for over an hour. No one was injured in the clashes.
In Aripanthan village of Budgam district in Central Kashmir, locals staged protests against the detention of local youth by police during nocturnal raids. The locals said that police detained around 10 youth on charges of stone-pelting during night raids. The locals were demanding release of the youths and said they were not involved in any stone-pelting incident.
After yesterday’s violence, the Boys Higher Secondary School in Budgam Town remained closed for teaching work today. The classwork for class 11 and 12 is already suspended in Sri Pratap Higher Secondary School and MP Higher Secondary School here in city.
Meanwhile, separatists today urged students “to maintain discipline and order” during protests. The separatists including Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik, slammed Government for detaining youth and students. “By detaining students, the authorities are creating awful conditions in State. The authorities are harsh towards students and it would further deteriorate already charged situations,” they alleged.
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