Tension gripped the north Kashmir district of Kulgam when a young civilian was killed during an anti-Israel demonstration at Khudwani, 60 km from Srinagar, on Saturday.
Deputy Inspector General of Police Vijay Kumar said the demonstrators protesting the Israeli bombing and the ground action in Gaza clashed with the police and paramilitary force at Khudwani at the end of afternoon prayers.
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Mr. Vijay Kumar said a violent group of over 200 people cordoned off a small police party led by Deputy Superintendent of Police, headquarters, when a constable fell from a running police vehicle. “The people overpowered the injured constable and attempted to snatch away his rifle and lynch him to death. Someone from the police party opened fire in self-defence which hit 16-year old Suhail Ahmed Lone of Mishipora Wavura. He was rushed to a hospital in Anantnag where doctors declared him dead,” he told The Hindu .
The police filed an FIR and claimed to have started an inquiry into Lone’s death.
Reports said that the teenager’s death in the police firing turned a vast area tense as violent groups clashed with the police and the Central Reserve Police Force at Khudwani, Qaimoh and other places. A police station at Qaimoh came under intense attack from the angry protesters shouting slogans and pelting stones on government properties.
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Ghulam Rasool Malik, who claimed he was among the demonstrators, alleged that the police party chased the protesters deep into an alley and opened fire straight on the teenager. He said that thousands of people attended the boy’s funeral prayers before burial first at Khudwani and later at Mishipora.