by Tahir Bhat
Srinagar
Once again students are back on the streets – this time to protest against the civilian killings in Shopian and Kangan. As schools and colleges opened after four days of the shutdown, students in Srinagar’s Amar Singh College, SP College, Women’s College, Islamia College clashed with police to mark their protest. Same scenes were witnessed in colleges of Kupwara, Handwara, Sumbal, Baramulla, Pattan and Palhalan. Fearing a repeat of April 2017 student protests, which erupted after a forces vehicle entered Pulwama Government Degree College, resulting in clashes between students and police, heavy deployment of forces was in place at major locations across Kashmir.
According to reports, students of Government Degree Kupwara boycotted their classes and held protests against the killings. Students raised anti-India and pro-freedom slogans and tried to take out a protest rally. However, police and paramilitary forces intercepted them and fired tear gas shells to disperse them.
As per reports reaching Srinagar, students clashed with forces in Handwara, resulting in injuries to several students.
Meanwhile, female students from Girls Higher Secondary School, Baramulla, also held protests against the recent killing in Shopian and Kangan, resulting in clashes.
But the most intense protests were reported from Srinagar’s Amar Singh College, where students clashed with police for most of the day. Students also set ablaze a CRPF picket stationed opposite college gate in Indoor Stadium in Wazirbagh area.
KL Image by Bilal Bahadur
For almost two hours panic gripped Srinagar’s main commercial area Lal Chowk after students from various schools and colleges clashed with police near Ghanta Ghar and Regal Chowk. Amid the chaos, shopkeepers downed their shutters and traffic movement got affected on the busy MA and Residency road.
Students of Degree College Sumbal also protest demonstration against the killings.They also offered funeral prayers in absentia for the slain militants and civilians.
Hundreds of students at Higher Secondary School Pattan also held a peaceful protest demonstration within the school premises, against the recent civilian killings in the Valley.
Similarly, clashes erupted between youth and government forces in Pallahalan area of north Kashmir’s Baramulla district.
Students of Kashmir University also boycotted their classes and held protests against the killings. The students carrying placards against killings marched inside the campus of the varsity.
The students of the Central University of Kashmir also staged a protest and offered funeral prayers in absentia for the slain civilians and militants.
The students also hailed Pakistani cricketer Shahid Afridi who called the UN to intervene and stop the bloodshed in Kashmir, reports said. The class work remained suspended in these educational institutes owing to protests.
