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Two killed in security forces' firing; Kashmir simmers

Last updated on: July 31, 2010 21:59 IST

A youth was killed and eight others were wounded in security force firing in Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday as the authorities imposed curfew in capital Srinagar and other towns. Meanwhile, the death toll in security force firing in the past two days has risen to five.

In north Kashmir's Baramulla town, Javed Ahmad Teli, a teenager who was critically wounded in police firing late on Saturday afternoon, succumbed to his injuries at the Sour Medical Institute on Saturday evening.

Officials said police had to open fire to disperse the stone pelting mobs in the town.

A senior police officer said mobs shouting pro-freedom slogans took to streets in the Naidkhai town in north Kashmir's Bandipore district, 40 kms from capital Srinagar on Saturday afternoon.

He said they later indulged in heavy stone pelting on the local state armed police camp. The guards at the camp had to open fire to quell the mob resulting in bullet injuries to two persons, one of whom identified as 23-year old Mudasir Ahmad Lone later succumbed to injuries.

High tension has gripped the town even as the security force-protestor clashes continued.

In south Kashmir's Pampore town, hundreds of people blocked the Srinagar Jammu highway and indulged in heavy stone pelting on passing vehicles.

The clashes come nearly 10 days after a person was killed and another injured in police firing in self-defence on a mob which turned violent during funeral of youth who had drowned in Jhelum river in Baramulla district.

Condemning the killings, opposition Peoples Democratic Party had said that such incidents were contributing to an "unprecedented worsening of situation".

PDP general secretary Mohammad Dilawar Mir, in a statement here, accused the state administration of failing to  perform its duty.

The state unit of Communist Party of India (Marxist) also expressed grief and shock over the killings.
Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar