KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
People were deep asleep when men in uniform raided their villages in the dead of night in South Kashmir’s Shopian during the intervening night of Friday and Saturday.
Local sources and reports said that armed forces personnel from Rashtriya Rifles, CRPF and J&K Police raided Nagbal, Hamoona, Daupora villages around 3 AM in the night.
“The loud bangs awoke us,” a local said. “Men in uniform came damaging whatever came their way.”
The people came out of their beds and announcements were made through loudspeakers and protests started.
“When forces did not stop, youths resorted to stone pelting,” sources said, “forces fired tear gas shells and pellets to disperse off the people.”
Clashes started at 3 AM and are going when this report was being filed. At least twenty civilians were injured in forces action. They were being treated locally.
These three villages are located on Shopian to Zainpora road.
A newspaper reporter from the area, Umar Rashid, said tat forces damaged his motor cycle beyond repair during the “operation ransacking”.
Meanwhile, clashes continued till 11:30 PM last night in Srinagar’s Batamaloo area. “Forces fired scores of tear gas shells and it was literally hell in our area last night,” a resident said.
The locals said that at least four electricity transformers were damaged by the forces in their action.
