Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday appealed for peace in Jammu and Kashmir where more than 30 people have died in widespread protests after the killing of militant commander Burhan Wani.
Modi chaired a high-level meeting in New Delhi and voiced concern over the violence in the Kashmir Valley, where a curfew continued for a fourth day yesterday.
“The prime minister has appealed to the people of Jammu and Kashmir to maintain calm and peace so that normalcy returns and no innocent lives are disturbed,” Minister of State in Prime Minister’s Office Jitendra Singh told reporters after the meeting.
The meeting was attended by Modi’s senior cabinet colleagues.
In Kashmir, amid curfew in most parts of the valley, the authorities grappled to control continuing violence that has also left nearly 1,400 people wounded, many seriously, in clashes between thousands of protesters and security forces.
Police said “strict curfew shall continue” almost all across the valley to prevent the spillover of street violence and counter-violence.
The protests erupted over the weekend after security forces killed the 22-year-old commander of Kashmir’s largest rebel group, Hizbul Mujahideen, and his two associates in a south Kashmir village on Friday.
Yesterday, Amir Nazir Latoo, who was injured in firing at Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s hometown in Bijbehara, died at a hospital in Srinagar, doctors said.
The latest death took the toll to 33, including a police driver, who was drowned by an angry mob in the Jhelum river near Sangam village.
Doctors and government officials said they were struggling with a medical emergency after hundreds of civilians were admitted to hospitals with bullet and pellet wounds.
All business and other aspects of normal life remained completely paralysed. Mobile Internet facility remained cut off across the valley and cell phone operations in south Kashmir’s Shopian, Anantnag, Kulgam and Pulwama districts also remained suspended.
Train services were also suspended for a fourth day as protesters damaged railway tracks at many places in south Kashmir.
There was an eerie calm on Srinagar’s deserted streets, with no reports of fresh protests in the state capital.
However, police sources said protests erupted at a “couple of places” in south Kashmir. The dead militant commander belonged to this region.
In north Kashmir’s Sopore town, gunmen fired upon a police patrol but “no one was injured,” a police officer said.
Separatist groups have extended the ongoing protest shutdown in the valley until tomorrow.
Meanwhile, the annual Amaranth Hindu pilgrimage that resumed on Monday after remaining suspended for two days continued as some 300 vehicles carrying pilgrims from different states of India entered the Kashmir Valley on Monday night.
“All the yatris have safety reached the Baltal base camp (in north Kashmir) and are now proceeding towards the cave shrine in regulated batches,” said an official of the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB) that manages the affairs of the annual pilgrimage.

UN chief calls for ‘maximum restraint’

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday called for an end violence in Jammu and Kashmir. “The secretary-general is following the recent clashes in Kashmir. He regrets the reported loss of dozens of lives and the injuries to many others,” Ban’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. “He calls on all parties to exercise maximum restraint to avoid further violence and hopes that all concerns would be addressed through peaceful means.” The situation has led to a diplomatic spat between India and Pakistan. India accuses Pakistan of sheltering rebels and helping them cross over to carry out attacks on Indian soil. Islamabad says it provides only diplomatic and political support to the people of Kashmir.