SRINAGAR: Violent clashes between protesters and the police have begun in Pulwama town over the mysterious death of a Kashmiri scholar in the south Indian city of Hyderabad on Saturday.
Mudasir Kamran, a research scholar in his mid twenties, was pursuing a doctorate at the English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad.
He was found hanging from the ceiling of his hostel room by his colleagues late on Saturday and died while being shifted to a hospital.
Kamran hailed from Parigam village in Pulwama district.
As news of his death spread Sunday morning, sporadic clashes erupted in Pulwama town and adjoining villages. Angry youth pelted the police with stones who in turn fired tear smoke shells.
At least one person has been wounded, hospital authorities say.
Police and paramilitary have now been deployed in strength in the town, where shops are closed and traffic has been affected.
In Koil area, unconfirmed reports say soldiers of paramilitary CRPF fired live bullets after their vehicle came under attack from stone pelters. However nobody received bullet injuries, residents said.
Clashes were also reported from Naidkhai, Sumbal and Sonawari areas in north Kashmir’s Bandipora.
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The Hyderabad police say they are awaiting a postmortem report to verify other angles to the death as no suicide note was found in Kamran’s room.
Locals in his hometown refuse to believe that he committed suicide.
Many believe that Kamran was tortured to death by the police during investigations into the recent twin blasts in Hyderabad which killed at least 18 people and wounded over a hundred.
“There is a perception here that he could have been made a whipping boy for the recent happenings there in Hyderabad,” a resident Syed Mehmood told us over phone from Pulwama.
Others allege that the scholar was “tortured for taking part in protest demonstrations over the hanging of Afzal Guru”.
The allegations could be due to news reports which quoted Kamran’s colleagues as saying that he had been earlier arrested by the police.
However, the deceased student’s friends told the Rising Kashmir newspaper and clarified that “Mudasir was arrested after he had a scuffle with his roommate from Pune.”
They added that Kamran’s cousins are on their way to Hyderabad from Maharashtra to collect the body and bring it to Kashmir.
Meanwhile Police in Kashmir say they have been informed by their counterparts in Hyderabad that a case has been registered against the proctor of the university for “abetment to suicide”.
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