Early Times Report
ANANTNAG, Oct 18: With protests erupting at Batengoo, Anantnag, over the death of truck conductor, who was injured in the October 9 petrol bomb attack at Udhampur, separatists too took a plunge, giving a call for Valley bandh on Monday.
Police sources said as soon as the news of death of Zahid Ahmad (24), who succumbed to his injuries at Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi, reached his native village Batengo, people, including men and women, came out on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway and held a demonstration.
They also clashed with police and blocked the highway. Eyewitness told Early Times that police used tear smoke shells to chase away the protesters, who retaliated by stoning the cops. The ding-dong battle between the two sides was in progress when reports last came in.
Sensing trouble, shops and other business establishments in certain Anantnag areas also observed a shutdown.
The protesters were demanding punishment to the attackers. Zahid, son of Ghulam Rasool Bhat, was shifted to Safderjung Hospital with serious burn injuries. Besides him, Showkat (35) had also suffered burns. He too was undergoing treatment at Safdarjung Hospital.
To show their concern, pro-Pak separatists issued a diktat to the people to observe a shutdown on Monday, demanding action against those who carried out the attack.
National Conference, which lost the people's mandate in the last state polls, too did not shy away from taking a dig at the PDP-BJP coalition government when it said that government was shielding the 'culprits' in the case. But its own record in dealing with the human tragedies of Kashmir and Jammu regions was also full of biases when it was in power. At the time of the mysterious "missing" of two school girls in a Kishtwar village three years or so back, the party and its then chief minister Omar Abdullah had not thought it proper to at least order a probe into the police role in the entire episode. When a Valley doctor had drowned in the famous Mansar Lake in Jammu, he had done the right thing to call divers from New Delhi to search out his body but in the case of the two Kishtwar girls, who were felt to have drowned in Chenab river, he had not undertaken any such exercise despite the fact he was the chief minister of Jammu also. There is no clue to the whereabouts of the girls even today.
Talking to Early Times, Siraj Ahmad, Chief Spokesman, KEA, said that government should ensure that stern action was taken against the people who carried out the attack on Zahid.
Meanwhile, University of Kashmir, State Board of School Education and State Board of Technical Education have cancelled all the examinations slated for Monday. However, the examination for eighth standard to be conducted by State Institute of Education has not been cancelled and it will be held as per the schedule.
On its arrival at the airport, Zahid's body was received by MP and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti, law minister Basharat Bukhari and finance minister Haseeb Drabu. From there, it was taken to his native place at Batengoo for last rites. |
