Several incidents of minor stone-throwing were reported across downtown Srinagar on Thursday as a shut down was observed in Kashmir valley to commemorate the 1984 hanging of Maqbool Bhat.
The stone-throwing incidents were reported in the afternoon, however, the joint forces of the police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) chased away the demonstrators. At several places in the old city, police had to tear-gas the protesters to clear protest sites.
Talking to The Kashmir Walla, Superintendent of Police, Hazratbal, Sudhanshu Verma said: “Officially, there is no such [report]. I can’t say if there were stray incidents. I can’t rule out stray incidents where four to five boys pelted stones, nothing major as such”.
In Srinagar, a majority of shops and fuel stations remained shut as the city recorded thin traffic movement. The shutdown marked the thirty-seventh death anniversary of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front founder Mohammad Maqbool Bhat. He was hanged in New Delhi”s Tihar Jail on this day in 1984.
