Kashmir’s People’s Demoncratic Party leader Abdul Gani Dar on Monday succumbed to injuries he sustained during an attack by suspected militants in Pulwama, reported The Times of India. He was attacked on Monday, only hours after Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to talk about the escalating crisis in the Valley. He was attacked while travelling in a car through the Pinglana area of Pulwama district, reported Hindustan Times.
On April 17, suspected militants killed well-known counter-insurgent Abdul Rashid Parray alias Rashid Billa and National Conference worker and a former public prosecutor Imtiaz Ahmad Khan in separate incidents. While Billa was shot dead in Bandipora district’s Hajin area, Khan was killed in Pinjoora area of Shopian district. In March, suspected militants had opened fire at PDP minister Auquaf Syed Farooq Andrabi’s ancestral home in Dooru, Anantnag. Two policemen had been injured in the attack.
Meanwhile, fresh clashes broke out between security forces and students at Srinagar’s SP college on Monday, PTI reported. The violence started when a group of students tried to take out a march from the college campus on Maulana Azad Road, an unidentified police official told the news agency.
The agency report further stated that some students started pelting stones at the security forces, prompting them to use batons on the protesters to disperse them. The incident took place on the first day that educational institutes opened in the region after reaming shut for five days owing to violence and protests last Monday.
On April 15, at least 54 students sustained injuries during clashes with security personnel outside Degree College in South Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama town. Witnesses said the incident took place when several students exited the college premises to stage a demonstration against a checkpoint installed by local police and the Central Reserve Police Force outside the campus.
Two days after the incident, the state government suspended mobile internet services in the Valley and asked all educational institutes to remain shut to avoid more violence. Incidents of protests and subsequent clashes with security forces have been on the rise since disturbing videos surfaced from the region. While one videos shows a civilian tied to the boot of an Indian Army jeep and taken around a locality to deter stone-pelters, another shows a few locals harassing a soldier
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