SRINAGAR: Police have used force to disperse demonstrators in north Kashmir’s Baramulla town where a shutdown is in force for the second day today (Thursday).
A large number of youth took to the streets in the old quarters of the town shouting slogans to demand that a camp of the security forces in the area be removed.
Witnesses said the angry youth tried to move towards the civil lines when police and paramilitaries stopped them at a bridge, leading to violent clashes.
Police fired tear smoke shells and pellets to disperse the youth who in turn pelted them with stones. A local news agency reported that half a dozen protesters were injured.
A statement issued by the police said they had a tough time facilitating passage for a mother and her newborn baby at the bridge. “The youth did not let them pass,” it said.
Shops and business establishments in the area have been closed since Wednesday over the demands by the people.
“We want all bunkers and camps especially 46 Rashtriya Rifles at Filtration Plant to be removed,” a resident of Baramulla told freepress by phone.
Locals believe soldiers of this 46 RR camp had shot dead a young man Tahir Ahmed Sofi in March.
Even chief minister Omar Abdullah then said that Sofi’s killing by army was “unjustified”.
