4 civilians dead in 24 hours, curfew in tense Srinagar

Agencies

Srinagar, 06 July 2010:  Tuesday began with protests against one death. Those led to a second death and then suddenly, Srinagar was back under curfew. The cycle of violence had spun out of control all over again.

On Monday, Muzaffar Ahmad, a class 11 student disappeared. Local residents said his death was caused by the security forces. The police said he fell and drowned when they were chasing a group of stone-throwers.

 

 

The anger spilled on to the streets and there was another casualty - 18-year-old Fayaz Ahmed died in Tengpura as protesters clashed with security personnel. The security forces were adamant that there had been no firing from their end.

And then, a young 25-year-old woman, Fancy, who was simply looking down at the chaos that had enveloped her city from the window of her home, was killed.

The police said this was an accident. That security forces had fired in the air to disperse a crowd pelting them with stones near Fancy’s house and a stray bullet hit her.

The Jammu and Kashmir Police issued a statement saying, "While dealing with very heavy pelting by protesters at Lachmanpora, Batmaloo, security forces fired in the air. A stray bullet hit a girl who was watching from the window of her house. She was taken to hospital where she was declared brought dead."

As protests grew louder and violence spread to other parts of the city, another 18-year-old boy was killed after clashes in the separatist neighbourhood of Maisuma.

Blamed for 15 civilian deaths over the last three weeks, the CRPF and the police have said they are being inaccurately faulted for today’s killings.

Top sources in the CRPF, in fact, say that their personnel have shown restraint in the Valley.

Ironically, the fresh violence erupted on a day when Omar Abdullah tried to reach out to his people as part of his political intervention to deal with the crisis. He was in Anantnag, in south Kashmir, which saw some of the worst violence last week.

But as Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has himself conceded, the real failure in the Valley has been the failure of political dialogue and it is a vacuum that New Delhi needs to fill.

Separatists like the moderate Hurriyat leader, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who also led protests against the killings today, said New Delhi needed to respond with urgency.

The vicious cycle of violence that began in Srinagar on June 11, traveled to north and south Kashmir, claiming the lives of 11 young men on its way. It is now back in Srinagar and has taken three more lives.