Students clash with police across Valley
Mobile Internet services shut, KU postpones exams
NL Correspondent
Srinagar, April 17 : Students clashed with security forces in several places in the Kashmir Valley on Monday during protests against the alleged “highhandedness” of security forces at a college in Pulwama in south Kashmir. The students also boycotted classes.
Meanwhile, the authorities suspended broadband and mobile Internet services in the Valley.
The protesting students, mostly from degree colleges across the Valley and some universities, tried to take out rallies but were stopped by police, leading to clashes, police officials said.
The clashes led to disruption in normal activities in various places, including Lal Chowk, the nerve centre of the city, the officials said. After student-police clash, Government ordered closure of higher secondary schools (HSSs), and colleges tomorrow.
Various student groups had called for protests today against the “brutality” perpetrated by forces on students of Degree College Pulwama in south Kashmir on Saturday, leaving many a students injured.
The trouble started when a group of students took out a rally near Sri Pratap (SP) College on the Moulana Azad Road in the vicinity of Lal Chowk against the Pulwama incident, leading to clashes between the protesting students and the law enforcing agencies, the officials said.
They said the police fired dozens of teargas shells and used batons to chase away the protesting students who indulged in stone-pelting and fought pitched battles with them.
The clashes created panic in the area, forcing shopkeepers to pull down the shutters of their establishments, the officials said, adding that traffic on the Moulana Azad Road was also affected.
Soon after, protests broke out in nearby Women's College and other colleges in the city and elsewhere in the Valley.
Protests were going on in various colleges in the Valley, including in Ganderbal, Baramulla, Shopian and Pulwama districts, the officials said.
They said the clashes left many, including security forces personnel, injured.
“We are compiling the details of the injured,” an official said.
Amid loud explosions of tear smoke canisters and other supposedly-nonlethal ammunition at around 11:30 am, the perturbed shopkeepers at the Residency Road and M A road immediately downed their shutters to be ready for the worse.
“Since morning, we were unable to decide whether to open the shops or keep them closed. Our businesses remained affected, as protesters and police played cat and mouse all day,” Ghulam Mohammad, a shop keeper said.
The business community said that the trade becomes the first causality every time the situation turns ugly in Kashmir.
In Old City Srinagar, there was disturbance when students of the Islamia College and Gandhi College tried to march to Lal Chowk. However, police stopped them near Baba Demb, leading to the clashes.
In north Kashmir, students poured out of the Sopore Degree College in large numbers and shouted slogans against the assault on students.
In south Kashmir Shopian several students were injured during clashes outside Degree College Shopian.
The students of Baramulla College also held protest and clashed with the forces.
Students of Government Degree College Ganderbal also staged protests. Some students resorted to stone pelting, leading to clashes with security forces. The Kashmir University students also held a protest inside its premises.
According to reports, at least 100 students and some policemen have got injured in clashes.
Meanwhile, Kashmir University has postponed all exams for Tuesday. The government has already ordered closure of some colleges for few days. The mobile internet has also been blocked in view of students protests.
