KL News Network
Srinagar
After a minor stone pelting incident at Tarabal area of Nawakadal in downtown Srinagar, the retreating forces resorted to heavy shelling on Tuesday evening.
“I was coming back on my scooty from Zakura, when stone pelting started. I saw forces charging towards youth,” said Nida (name changed), a student who lives in Nawakadal area. “I couldn’t react for a moment and in the melee left my scooty on the road and took refuge in a nearby house.”
As clashes intensified, forces resorted to heavy teargas shelling, smashing everything that came in their way, said Nida. “They smashed my scooty into pieces. It took me an hour to retrieve it from the road.”
Since July 9, pepper and PAVA shells fired by the forces to disperse clashing youth in Nawakadal and its adjoining areas has become a routing. “The smoke of PAVA and pepper is so strong that it feels like my lungs will collapse anytime,” said Heena, a local resident. “There is not even a single day when we don’t have to bear this hazardous gas.”
Controversial PAVA and pepper gas shells were introduced as crowd control measure by the state. “You cannot imagine how we survive on a daily basis when this smoke fills our homes,” said a local resident who wishes not to be named. “We have somehow adopted ourselves to pepper and normal teargas smoke, but this PAVA shells is inhumane,” said another resident. “They want us to suffocate to death.”
