6 cops among 25 injured in Srinagar clashes

Police fired warning shots to disperse a crowd of 4,000 people when they refused to lift the dharna on Srinagar-Jammu National Highway.

Six policemen were among 25 people injured in a clash between demonstrators, demanding repair of a road, and police at Zewan on the outskirts of Srinagar on Monday, official sources said.

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Police fired warning shots and burst tear gas shells to disperse a crowd of 4,000 people when they refused to lift the dharna on Srinagar-Jammu National Highway, sources said.

Demanding immediate repairs of 10 kilometre road stretch from Pantha Chowk to Zewan, villagers including women and children of Zewan, Sempora, Balhama and Pantha Chowk blocked traffic on the road.

Police tried to persuade the demonstrators to disperse but when they refused police used batons and burst teargass shells while the agitated people retaliated with stones, sources said adding they also fired in the air.

In the battle which continued for over 90 minutes, six policemen including, Station House Officer and at least 20 agitators were injured, they said.

The agitators alleged that the road for the past 25 years have not been repaired causing inconvenience to the villagers who have to foot a distance of 10 kilomters to reach the Highway and board the buses. The office goers and students were the hardest hit as the private transporters have refused to ply vehnicles on the route in view of its bad condition.

Meanwhile, regional transport officer said monitoring by the field staff revealed that vehicles assigned to the route were diverting their services to other routes in contravention of route permit and causing inconvenience to the general public and requested Superintendent of Police to seize the vehicles if found plying on the routes.