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Anti-poll protests rock Valley : 21 Wounded, Sumo Ferrying CRPF Torched, Undeclared Curfew Likely Today : Srinagar, Apr 28: Minutes after the Hurriyat strike call began at 6 pm on Tuesday, protests broke out throughout the valley triggering clashes with police and paramilitary forces leaving at least 21, including 12 civilians and 9 police personnel, injured. The strike had been called by chairman of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, Syed Ali Shah Geelani.
Smelling trouble, authorities are likely to curtail movement of people on the pattern of the recently conducted assembly elections. With heavy deployments all over the city and erection of barricades at sensitive points, an undeclared curfew was likely to be clamped on several city areas Wednesday.
“There might be some restrictions in the city to prevent incidents of stone pelting but it all depends on the situation,” the senior superintendent of police, Ahfadul Mujtaba, told Greater Kashmir.
Scores of youth shouting pro freedom and anti government slogans took to streets and staged demonstrations at Rajouri Kadal. They attempted to take out an anti-election rally in the area, but were stopped by police and CRPF who used baton charge and lobbed tear gas shells to disrupt the protestors who resorted to stone pelting on them.
The protests soon spilled over to adjoining Bohri Kadal, Nowhatta, Gojwara, Rajouri Kadal and Zaina Kadal and several uptown areas, including Maisuma.
In Bohri Kadal area, protestors stopped a private Sumo vehicle carrying CRPF personnel, which tried to cut through the protestors. Unconfirmed reports said that the paramilitary troopers were on way for election-related duty.
Eyewitnesses said that the CRPF troopers were forced down and their bamboo sticks snatched with which they were beaten by the crowd. After that the vehicle was set ablaze by the agitated protestors. This led to heavy tear smoke shelling and baton charge by the police and troopers.
In Maisuma, protests broke out when some youth took to streets and started chanting slogans against elections. Police and CRPF resorted to tear gas shelling and baton charge. At least one protestor was dragged and whisked away in waiting police gypsy. Four protestors were reportedly injured.
Following tension, all civilian movement in the area screeched to a halt while all public and private transport vehicles were diverted to other routes. “There shall be restricted movement in various city areas and elsewhere across the valley, especially where the situation remains volatile,” a senior police official said on condition of anonymity.
During the recent assembly elections also, the administration had used similar tactics to thwart the “Chalo” calls given by pro-freedom leadership on election dates. Kashmir division will see its round of parliamentary elections on April 30.
GHULAM MUHAMMAD ADDS FROM SOPUR: Protests broke out this evening in this north Kashmir town in response to the strike call given by the pro-freedom leadership. Protestors gathered in Main Chowk and pelted stones on CRPF posted outside the State Bank of India building. They also stoned a CRPF gypsy smashing its windscreens. Reports said that three CRPF men sustained injuries.
This led to heavy deployment of security in the area even as protests continued in Batpora, Khusal Matoo and Main Chowk till reports last came in.

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Noose tightens on freedom camp : Srinagar, Apr 28: As soon as Mirwaiz Umar Farooq reached his Nigeen residence after chairing Hurriyat’s meeting at Rajbagh headquarters, police placed him under house arrest.
Talking to Greater Kashmir by phone, Mirwaiz said a large contingent of police cordoned off his house. “They told me I can’t move out. The government’s seems to be frustrated by our peaceful campaign against the elections. But we won’t bow under the pressure,” he said.
A Hurriyat spokesman said authorities put under house arrest senior leader, Dr Ghulam Nabi Hubbi. Authorities had also placed Hurriyat leaders, Nayeem Ahmad Khan and Javid Ahmad Mir under house arrest and raided the house of media advisor, Saleem Geelani.
The Chairman of Hurriyat Conference (G) Syed Ali Shah Geelani and chairman of JKLF Muhammad Yaseen Malik have been under house arrest for past several days.

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Student Critical: Sopur, Apr 28: Following severe protests by students in this town, police on Tuesday released the 17-year old student in a critically injured condition. He had been arrested two days ago for his alleged involvement in pro-freedom protests.
Eyewitnesses said Umar Rashid Kanjwal of Takyabal, was brutally tortured in custody and his condition was critical.
“His head has been badly beaten and blood was oozing from it when he was released. He has been admitted in the hospital,” they said, adding, “He has multiple fractures in his limbs showing that he had been tortured in custody.”
The student was set free after hundreds of his fellow students took to streets seeking his immediate release. Shouting anti-government and pro-freedom slogans, the students gathered at the Iqbal Market in Main Chowk in the morning.
Within minutes, all the shops and business establishments pulled down their shutters while movement of vehicular traffic through the area was suspended. The protesters alleged that the police were trying to frame the student in a false case.
“He has never been part of any protest. He was arrested when he was simply returning home,” they said.
(Reported by: Ghulam Muhammad)

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144 years ago, 28 shawl weavers were killed : For Protesting Against Gulab Singh’s Harsh Tax System Srinagar, Apr 28: In a newly constructed market at Zaldagar in Shahr-e-Khaas, there are no traces of a carnage carried out by the Dogra army about 150 years ago. Yet, the memories of the incident, which led to death of 28 persons, are still fresh in the minds and hearts of the residents.
It was on 29 April 1865 when scores of shawl weavers marched through the streets of Shahr-e-Khaas against the cruel tax policies of the Dagh Shawl Department of the Dogra regime. The procession, which later came to be known as the Shalbaf procession, was also organised to protest against the “difficult working conditions, meager wages, excessive taxation and a ban on weavers who wanted to leave Kashmir valley.”
The protests were held in the wee hours of April 29 outside the house of Pandit Raj Kak Dhar, the Kashmiri Pandit official who headed the Dagh Shawl Department, in the city’s Zaldgar locality. Historians say Dhar misinformed the Dogra army that he was being attacked. As the protesters reached Zaldgar, the Dogra troops led by Colonel Bijoy Singh rounded off the demonstrators and asked them to disperse. When the unarmed protesters refused to do so, the troops fired at them and later charged them with spears. Scores of protesters jumped off the Haji Rather Sum Bridge at Zaldgar, in the hope they would hide in the marsh underneath, but at least 28 bodies were recovered from the river, and over 100 sustained wounds.
“We have been told everything about the episode by our elders. The procession was nothing but a demonstration of fight against oppression and exploitation,” said Muhammad Razak, a resident of Zaldgar while pointing toward the bridge. “This bridge always reminds us of the procession and protesters who are our real heroes. And the best nation is one which doesn’t forget its history and heroes.” “The Shalbaf procession is a very significant event in the history of Kashmir. It was the first ever agitation against the exploitative work system,” said Dr Sheikh Showkat Hussain, who teaches Law in Kashmir University.
The Shalbaf procession, Dr Showkat said, was a big event in the global context as it took place much before the historic May Day of 1886. May 1 is observed in many parts of the world as International Workers’ Day.
“The Shawl Weavers protest becomes globally important in a way that it occurred many years before the May Day. But it is pity our part that we ignore our own martyrs who rebelled against the oppressive system,” Dr Showkat told Greater Kashmir.
Sheikh Rasool, Ubli Baba, Qudda Lal, and Sona Butt were among the protesters during the Shalbaf procession who, according to historians, were imprisoned in different jails like Habak, Bahu Fort, and Ram Nagar. They were later “tortured to death.”
The noted historian, Fida Muhammad Hassnain, has recorded that Shawlbaf protest was “perhaps the first organized protest for demands in the history of class struggle in India.”

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