Violent protests in Kashmir over death order to Afzal Guru

Srinagar, Sep 27 (UNI) More than 70 protestors were wounded and several others arrested after violent demonstrations erupted in many parts of the Kashmir valley over a Delhi court's order to hang till death Mohammad Afzal Guru, the prime accused in the December 13, 2001 Parliament attack case, in Tihar jail on October 20.

The breakaway Hurriyat Conference, led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, has called for a general strike in the entire Kashmir valley on Friday in protest against the order.

Several Dukhtaran-e-Millat (Daughters of Faith) activists took out a protest march in the summer capital and clashed with police here before being arrested.

Police resorted to baton-charge and fired teargas shells to disperse a violent mob at Maisuma near the headquarters of the pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) in the heart of the city.

All shops and business establishments in the entire Lal Chowk area, the nerve centre of the summer capital, were closed soon after the protests erupted.

Demonstrators, mostly JKLF activists, indulged in stone-pelting and burnt tyres to register their protest against the court verdict.

More than 70 protestors, including women, and several police personnel, many of them critically, were wounded in stone-pelting and teargasing. The injured have been admitted to different hospitals in the city and other parts of the Valley. Most of them were being treated in private hospitals of the summer capital.

Several JKLF leaders, including chairman Yasin Malik, were arrested by police during protests.

Police took the separatist leaders into preventive custody while they were leading protests at Maisuma. The others arrested were Bashir Ahmed, Noor Mohammad Kalwal, Sheikh Abdul Rashid, Gulzar Ahmed Haroon and Ghulam Mohammad Hazari.

Many JKLF activists, including Shakeel Ahmed Bakshi, Tahir Ahmed Mir and Imran Zargar, were wounded in the violent protests.

The activists carried placards which read ''Afzal Guru: We are with you...Don't repeat Maqbool Bhat...Don't hang Afzal Guru...Don't kill the justice...Don't kill one more Kashmiri.'' Police also arrested about two dozen Geelani-led Hurriyat activists, including five women, at Lal Chowk while they were taking out a protest demonstration.

Those arrested included Ghulam Nabi Sumjhi, Fidous Ahmed Shah, Yasmin Raja, Nisar Hussain Rather, Mohammad Yasin Atai, Khaliq Badgami, Moulvi Bashir and Farooq Ahmed.

A leader of the rival JKLF faction, Javed Mir, was arrested by the authorities at Maisuma when he was leading a demonstration.

The moderate Hurriyat Conference, led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, protested the court order.

Reports received here from Baramulla said demonstrations were held in many parts of the district over the court order.

Complete shutdown was observed in apple town of Sopore, about 50 km from here. People in large numbers came out on streets to protest against the order at Seer Jagir and Doabgah in Sopore, the hometown of Afzal Guru, where a pall of gloom has descended following the court order.

Additional Sessions Judge Ravinder Kaur while issuing the order of execution, to be carried out at 0600 hrs at Tihar Jail here on October 20, said Afzal be hanged by neck until dead.

Afzal along with Delhi University lecturer S A R Geelani and cousin Shaukat Hussain Guru were sentenced to death by a special POTA court on December 18, 2002.

The court had also sentenced Afsan Guru, wife of Shaukat Guru, to five years' rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10,000 for concealing knowledge of the conspiracy. The Delhi High Court had later acquitted Geelani and Afsan Guru in the case.

The Supreme Court confirmed Afzal Guru's death sentence on August 4, 2005 and changed the capital punishment awarded to Shaukat Guru to ten years of rigorous imprisonment.

UNI AG PK KP2036