Kashmir on edge: Four injured in firing as protestors try to storm army camp

A youth from Bandipora was killed in retaliatory firing by security forces as protestors tried to storm an army camp in North Kashmir on Sunday evening, sources said.

Four people were injured as protestors tried to storm an army camp in North Kashmir’s Bandipora district on Sunday evening.

Indian paramilitary soldiers walk back to their base camp on the ninth straight day of curfew in Srinagar on Sunday.(AP)

“Four people were injured, one seriously but he is stable,” Bandipora deputy commissioner Sajad Hussain said.

At least 41 people have died in the ongoing protests, which entered Day 9 on Sunday.

In an unrelated incident, a man’s body was recovered from Nallah Sindh, under the Kangan police station. “The body was later on identified as Fayaz Ahmad Sofi, son of Ali Mohammad Sofi and a resident of Rainawari, Srinagar. A middle aged man of 45-50 years, approximately,” said a police spokesperson.

The person was mentally challenged, and had been missing since July 9. The circumstances surrounding his death remain unclear.

However, the Sofi family has alleged that Fayaz was being chased by security forces before he went missing. “[His] hands were tied and he was hit in his head, [and] there were bruises all over his body... The condition of the body revealed that he was tortured,” Fayaz’s brother-in-law Javaid Ahmad told the media.

Kashmir has been on the boil since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter on July 8. Curfew entered its ninth day on Sunday, and the Valley remained tense amid incidents of violent clashes between protestors and security forces.

Mobile networks, apart from the state-run BSNL, remained suspended, while cable network, which was disrupted on Saturday, was restored.

Newspapers remained off the shelves for the second consecutive day as the state government had on Saturday ordered a three-day ban on publication after police raided media houses and shut down a major printing press.

Essential commodities are also in short supply as the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway has remained closed.

Hospitals in the Valley are overwhelmed by the growing number of injured, many with pellet injuries, being brought in as protests entered Day 9. According to the first yet figures released on Friday by the Jammu-Kashmir government, a total of 1,882 people have been injured — about 600 of them with pellet injuries and 125 with bullets wounds.

An earlier version of this story reported that a youth was killed in retaliatory firing by security forces. Bandipora deputy commissioner Sajad Hussain later confirmed that there was no civilian casualty in the area. The details were changed accordingly.

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