SRINAGAR: Police in Kashmir have arrested a Sarpanch (village head) on charges of throwing stones at police during violent anti-India protests.
Mohammed Akbar Bhat, Sarpanch of Bhat Mohalla, is among nine other persons arrested for violence in Palhallan area of north Kashmir’s Baramulla district.
Station House Officer, Mehboob Banday told FreePress that Bhat did not heed advice to refrain from violence.
“He continued and on Saturday damaged a vehicle of the paramilitary CRPF,” he said.
The valley is seething with anger over the desecration of Quran and killings of Muslim protestors by the Border Security Force in Ramban, nearly 140 kms from here.
Scores of people, including policemen and CRPF personnel, have been wounded in clashes.
Many youth have been arrested for stone pelting.
But this is perhaps for the first time that an elected village head has been arrested since the Panchayat elections in 2011.
The government considered the elections historical, conducted after three decades, to “strengthen the grassroots democracy” in conflict-torn Jammu and Kashmir.
Bhat, according to reports, is affiliated with the main opposition People’s Democratic Party.
