Protests and clashes rocked Nowhatta in the Old City area of Srinagar after Friday prayers. While pro-independence and anti-India protests are a regular feature here on Friday afternoons, this time, it was also an expression of solidarity with Palestine on Al Quds Day, the last Friday of Ramzan declared by the late Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Khomeini as an international day of struggle against Israel and for the liberation of Jerusalem.
Anti-India slogansHundreds of youth shouted pro-Palestine, pro-independence and anti-India slogans in front of heavily armed paramilitary and police personnel, and soon, the youth started throwing stones and the armed forces retaliated with tear-gas, stun grenades and batons.
The police said the raising of flags of Pakistan, Palestine and the terror groups ISIS and Lashkar-e-Taiba had no meaning beyond symbolism and was a means to garner attention.
“There is no link between these flags and the ISIS. These are 13-14-year-old boys who have realised that this flag get them a lot of attention and they like that,” Inspector-General of Police Mujtaba Geelani told The Hindu . “We have apprehended these boys in the past and become convinced that they don’t belong to these organisations; nor do these organisations have any presence here.”
Sources said some boys set the Indian flag ablaze and shouted anti-India slogans. Four youths were injured in the protests.
Police sources said that they arrested several of the youth a day ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr.
