Indian Police Violence at Ashura in J&K

SRINAGAR: Violence marred Muharram in Kashmir where police baton-charged mourners in Srinagar who assembled to mourn in connection with Yaum-e-Ashur and used tear gas in the old city area to disperse the unarmed mourners.

The police said at least one lakh people participated in the main Ashura procession at Zadibal in Srinagar’s old city area.

In Srinagar’s Lal Chowk, police quelled a group of Shia mourners who tried to take out a procession in the city centre without permission. The mourners clashed with the police who chased them with lathis and detained some youths for taking out a procession at Lal Chowk. Several people were injured.

The police had made elaborate arrangements in preventing sectarian clashes at several places in the old city area, but they threw tear gas shells to disperse the gatherings.

The protesters pelted police vans with stones.

Several big processions, though, marched peacefully. The processions in Leh and Kargil, too, were peaceful.

It should be mentioned that the Indian government has imposed a ban on the taking out the processions of Muharramul Haram since 1989.