Fear gripped people here on Wednesday as some masked youths attacked a private bank and torched an SUV.
The youths stopped the private vehicle and set it ablaze on the Srinagar-Baramulla National Highway near the Delina area in the afternoon.
A police official said several men barged in and ransacked the bank branch at Natipora.
The police said these incidents were meant to enforce a shutdown called by separatists.
In the past two weeks, six vehicles, including two autorickshaws, have been set on fire in the Valley.
Even as the 103-day-long shutdown has affected every aspect of Kashmiri life, with business and education taking a major hit, the separatists extended their shutdown up to October 27, relaxed after 5 p.m. for three days a week.
A joint protest programme issued by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik has called for holding the “first resistance assembly” at the J&K Assembly House on October 27, the day the Army landed in Srinagar in 1947.
With the government deciding not to defer the annual school examinations, the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba (IJT), a students’ body, asked the authorities “to create a conducive atmosphere before holding annual examinations”.
Anti-government rallies were foiled in Budgam’s Soibugh area, Warpora in Sopore, Pulwama’s Newa area and parts of Anantnag. The security forces fired blank shots and hurled tear smoke shells to control the situation. No major casualty was reported.
Meanwhile, a day after the massive crackdown in Baramulla district against protesters, in which Pakistan and Chinese flags besides militant organisations’ letter pads were seized, militants have issued a death threat to the local police’s Station House Officer. Sources said the police officer was threatened for the crackdown and the arrest of 44 youths.
