Adil Lateef
Srinagar, May 6: Police in Handwara town of North Kashmir’s Kupwara district had a tough day today as students staged violent protests and engaged cops in pitched battles during which dozens of students and policemen including officers were injured.
After routine classwork resumed in Government Degree College Handwara this morning, hundreds of students assembled on their campus and started protests against use of force on their peers since last month in Valley. The students, including girls, took out a rally from their institute and marched on the streets of Handwara Town, raising slogans.
Police intercepted the students and asked them to return to their College but the latter refused to abide by the direction and responded by pelting stones. Police retaliated by firing teargas shells and counter-pelting, ensuing massive clashes in Handwara Town, resulting in complete lockdown.
Angered by police action, the students pelted stones on police from multiple directions and also attacked local police station by hurling stones and bricks. Due to heavy clashes between the two sides, the Handwara streets dotted with stones and broken bricks presented battleground look. Owing to the intense clashes, police were assisted by Special Operation Group (SOG) sleuths to contain the stone-throwing.
At least 20 students, most of them girls, sustained minor injuries in the clashes with police. Many other girls suffered suffocation due to teargas and some of them were hospitalized.
Superintendent of Police (SP) Handwara, Ghulam Jeelani said the police exercised “maximum restraint” while dealing with students. “Our 25 men, three of them officers, were injured,” he said. A student was nabbed by police during stone-throwing.
The student protests which started from Pulwama Degree College during mid April last month are refusing to die down. The State Government has so far failed to scuttle the protests while separatists, who have no control over the students, are watching helplessly albeit they made occasional veiled appeals for resumption of classwork, which, however, went unnoticed.
Several girl students fainted today after police used teargas shells against student protesters demanding release of their detained peers at Newa area of southern Pulwama district in morning hours. The students of local higher secondary boycotted their classes and came out on Srinagar-Newa-Pulwama road and blocked it for vehicular movement as they were seeking release of students detained by police over stone-throwing.
Shouting slogans against the State, the students were adamant over their demand and refused to allow vehicular movement despite police plea after which cops fired teargas canisters. The students retaliated with intense stone-pelting, resulting in chaos and panic. At least nine girl students fainted and three of them were hospitalized but all are stable. Student protests also erupted at Pahoo village of Pulwama district.
Meanwhile, a 14 year old boy identified as Zeeshan was injured after Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel resorted to pellet firing on boys who pelted stones on their vehicles at Churat village of Qazigund in Kulgam district of South Kashmir, police sources said, adding that the boy has been hospitalized and is out of danger.
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