At least 10 people were injured yesterday when security forces clashed with a group of protesting mourners carrying the body of a teenager who died in a hospital here the previous night amid conflicting reports about the cause of his death.
Qaisar Ahmed, 16, was brought to the hospital on October 28 in an unconscious state. His family alleged he bore torture marks when he was found a day after he went missing from his home in the Shalimar area on the outskirts of Srinagar city.
However, police claimed that the boy had consumed poison. Ahmed died around 10pm on Friday.
His body was taken in a procession yesterday morning for a funeral at the martyrs’ graveyard in the Eidgah area of old Srinagar city.
A police spokesman said some angry protesters from the procession threw stones at security forces, resulting in a clash. Police used tear smoke shells and pellets to disperse the angry protesters, causing injuries to over 10 civilians and security men.
In another incident, three policemen, including a junior officer, were injured on Friday night in an improvised explosive device (IED) explosion in Dadsara village of Pulwama district.
Police said militants fired some shots in the area to lure the security men out of the police station after which they exploded the IED.
A school was torched in Saidunara area of Bandipora district during the night taking to 29 the number of educational institutions set ablaze by unknown people during the past few weeks in the Kashmir Valley.
Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said her government would review cases against youth arrested during the nearly four-month-long unrest and take a lenient view on those detained for stone-throwing for the first time.
“We will review those cases where students and first-timers are found to be involved. We will talk to their parents and get their assurances that their wards will not participate in protests in future,” Mufti said.
“We can’t go on arresting people. There should be a different and empathetic plan of action to contain the situation,” she said.