The government plans to set up Pandit and Sainik colonies sparked protest demonstrations in different towns of Kashmir Valley on Friday. The protests were held after Friday congregational prayers. The call for protest was given by both the factions of Hurriyat and Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front.Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front activists led by vice chairman Advocate Bashir Ahmed Bhat took out a protest march in Maisuma Srinagar. Carrying banners and placards the protesters denounced the concept of separate township for migrant Pandits. Carrying placards and banners the protesters threatened of stir in case government did not shelve the idea of proposed plans to set up Sainik Colony and separate Pandit townships here. Pertinently, the Front Chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik could not attend the protest march as he was detained by police near Pampore while on way to Islamabad.Senior Tehreek-e-Hurriyat leader Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai led a peaceful protest march at Hyderpora that was attended by hundreds of people. Speaking on the occasion, Sehrai sid that it is policy and plan of the Indian sponsored government to change the demography of Jammu and Kashmir. He said that the idea to create separate townships for Pandits across Kashmir Valley has borrowed by India from Zionist country Israel. “It will be disasatrous for us if we fail to stop the onslaught of the state government at this juncture. The idea of separate colonies is aimed at to create states within state,” he said.
Violent protests and clashes were reported from South Kashmir’s Kulgam and Islamabad districts.In Islamabad protesters shouting slogans in favour of Kashmir's freedom and against the plans to establish Sainik and Pandit colonies marched from Ahle-Hadith Jamia Masjid to Lal Chowk in the town. Police burst tear-smoke shells and used pellets to disperse the protesters resulting in the injury of a youth. Witnesses told CNS that the youth suffered eye injury after forces fired pellet guns to break up demonstrations in Reshi Bazar area of the town.Witnesses said that youths took to streets and staged a demonstration at Reshi Bazar near Hanfia Jamia Masjid. To disperse the protesters, police lobbed chili grenades and teargas shells. The clashes spread to other old town areas.Earlier, JKLF leaders Sheikh Rashid and Noor Muhammad Kalwal addressed people at Jamia Masjid Hanfia to campaign for poll boycott. In Kulgam police reportedly resorted to aerial firing to disperse the protesters who were on roads to denounce the idea of separate colonies concept. The protesters also castigated ruling PDP for supporting and aiding BJP to change the Muslim demographic character of the state. A police official told CNS that they didn’t resort to aerial firing. “It was an accidental fire and nothing else,” he said.In old Srinagar city there were intense clashes between police and youth outside Jamia Masjid Srinagar. A rally was taken out from Jamia Masjid that was led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. However after the departure of Mirwaiz, the clashes erupted in the area while police used dozens of tear-smoke shells and pellets to disperse the anti-Indian protesters. Several people including a policeman sustained injuries during the clashes.Chairperson Hurriyat Conference (M) Mirwaiz Umar Farooq strongly condemned the “brutal use of force” by forces in various areas of old city especially around Jamia Masjid, Srinagar in which a number of persons have got injured, a statement issued by the amalgam here read.Mirwaiz described it as completely “fascist and dictatorial attitude of the government to harass and coerce into submission” the population of Srinagar. (CNS)