As Students clashes with forces, City centre turns into battlefield

• 2 students, 12 cops injured; 6 students detained
• Govt forces resort to tear gas shelling, aerial firing to quell protests
• Student, photojournalist, woman injured; SSP Srinagar among 12 cops hurt
• Cops showed utmost restraint: Police

Massive clashes were witnessed between students and government forces in the heart of Srinagar city on Monday as colleges re-opened after remaining closed for a week in Kashmir valley.
Government forces used tear gas and water cannons to prevent students of SP Higher Secondary School and SP College from taking out a protest march and blocking the busy Maulana Azad Road. The students retaliated by hurling stones at police and paramilitary CRPF men and making their way to the main street by opening the school gate forcibly.
Policemen fired live ammunition into the air in a desperate bid to quell the protests, but could not prevent the clashes from spilling over to adjoining areas in the commercial hub of Lal Chowk. People ran helter-skelter and shopkeepers lowered their shutters and took refuge inside.
Students of Government College for Women M A Road also boycotted classes and staged protest demonstration. The college authorities locked the main gate of the college to prevent protesting students from marching out on the road. However, they forcibly opened the gate and joined the protesting male students. Students of Girls Higher Secondary School Kothibagh also took out a protest march at the nearby Exchange Road.
The roads were cleared for vehicular movement after police chased away protesting students. However, clashes erupted again after news about the arrest of six students spread in the area.
“The protestors put barricades on Residency Road to hamper movement of police vehicles. They attacked police vehicles with sticks and stones near Regal Chowk,” witnesses said, before the situation was brought under control late afternoon.
According to officials, six persons were injured in the clashes. A 16-year-old student, Haris, son of Mushtaq Ahmad Mota of Tankipora was hit in the head by a stone at SP College. He was shifted to SMHS hospital where his condition is stated to be stable. A 38-year-old woman Rafeeqa, wife of Subhan Patoo of HMT was hit by a teargas shell in left leg at Lal Chowk. A photojournalist working for Delhi-based news-portal ‘The Citizen’, Basit Zargar got three stitches in the head after being hit by a stone.
Meanwhile, according to police spokesman, twelve personnel, including three officers, were injured in the stone pelting. SSP Srinagar, Imtiyaz Ismail Parray was also hit by a stone in his right elbow.
However, according to photojournalists who covered the protests, around six boys were injured during the clashes. A photojournalist working with a leading English daily said a policeman was hiding outside the gate of SP College and he hurled a brick at a boy. “After the brick hit him, the boy was bleeding profusely so much so that policemen got scared and didn’t muster courage to go near him,” the photojournalist said.
Another photojournalist, whose camera was broken when a stone was hurled at him, said, “I saw at least six boys being hit by stones.”
The photojournalists, who captured the clashes, were surprised to find that none of the injured had reported to hospitals. A Causality Medical officer at SMHS hospital said, “We are the first persons to report the causality and we have been informed that to avoid spying by police the injured patients have gone to private hospitals.”
Speaking to Kashmir Post SSP Srinagar, Imtiyaz Ismail Parray said, “No student from SP College was injured.”
Medical Superintendent of SMHS hospital, Dr Nazir Hussain Choudhary said, “One photojournalist and one student was injured in the clashes.”
Meanwhile, protests between students and forces were also reported from Soura where students of Girl’s Higher Secondary School Soura boycotted their classes.

Police Version
According to a police statement issued in the evening, students were attending classes normally at S P School and the nearby Women’s College at M A Road.
“However, just after about an hour of class work, some miscreants from different places entered the premises of school and created disturbances. The miscreants along with some students blocked M A Road because of which hundreds of vehicles got stranded on the busy road and adjacent chowks. Police and security forces reached the spot. They were pelted upon heavily due to which many police and security forces personnel were injured. The stone pelting created panic in the area after which many shopkeepers closed their shops. Some vehicles were damaged,” police said in a statement.
Police said the miscreants and the students pelted stones on Traffic Headquarters and attacked police vehicles with stones and sticks. “However, police showed utmost restraint.”
“Twelve personnel including three officers were injured in the stone pelting. Some boys involved in stone pelting were caught on the spot and detained by police. The mob was dispersed and the normalcy was restored in the area.”
Police requested parents to advise their wards not to indulge in stone pelting and other such activities which create disorder in the schools and on the roads.
Police refuted the reports about aerial firing by cops. “This is factually incorrect,” the statement added.
Tensions have escalated since April 15 when clashes between government forces and students at Pulwama degree college left over 50 students injured. On April 17, another round of student protests left more than 100 students injured. Authorities responded by closing colleges, universities and some high schools for a week, but the protests continued unabated.