Pro-Saddam protests erupt in Kashmir, 40 hurt

Srinagar, Jan 5: At least 40 people, including a Station House Officer and a photojournalist, were wounded as protestors fought a pitched battle with security personnel while violent demonstrations over the execution of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein continued unabated in several parts of the Kashmir valley today.

Massive protests erupted in many areas of the Kashmir valley soon after Friday prayers this afternoon over the execution. The protests refuse to subside with angry demonstrators taking to streets in many parts of Kashmir almost every day since the hanging.

Outraged at the execution, protestors took out a procession from Gow Kadal here soon after Friday prayers and marched to Maisuma, Lal Chowk, Regal Chowk, Exchange Road before culminating at Badshah Chowk with the burning of US President George W Bush in effigy.

They also shouted anti-US, anti-Bush and pro-Saddam slogans.

''Down with America...Down with Bush...Saddam Hussein is a martyr,'' shouted the protestors as they marched ahead.

Reports of demonstrations and clashes were received from various parts of the city, particularly downtown areas, and at several places in almost all district headquarters, major towns and villages in the Kashmir valley.

At least 40 people, including SHO Safa Kadal Showkat Ahmed, were wounded in the clashes between protestors and security forces near grand Jamia Mosque in the downtown city soon after Friday prayers.

Dainik Jagran photojournalist Shafat Siddiqui also sustained injuries while covering the protests.

Security forces resorted to baton charge and fired teargas shells to control the angry mourners.

About 25 people, including two women and a CRPF Assistant Commandant, were wounded yesterday in the clashes during which security forces used rubber bullets for the first time in the recent past to disperse the violent mob.

The 69-year-old fallen strongman of Iraq had been executed by hanging at dawn on December 30.

Earlier on November five, a US-sponsored court in Baghdad had sentenced the deposed Iraqi president to death by hanging after being found guilty of crimes against humanity for his role in the killing of 148 Shi'ite villagers following an assassination attempt on his life in 1982.

UNI

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