Clashes erupt in Kashmir over man killed for cow slaughter rumour; Pakistan flag waved

Srinagar: Kashmir Valley and parts of Jammu region are shut on Monday to mourn and protest the murder of a Muslim trucker by alleged Sangh Parivar activists over cow slaughter rumour in the State’s Udhampur district.

Zahid Rasool Butt was among two crew members of a Valley-bound truck seriously injured in an attack by a group of people at Shiv Nagar along Jammu-Srinagar highway on October 9 night. He died in Delhi’s Safdarjang Hospital on Sunday.

Earlier on that day several areas in Udhampur district had witnessed protests by Hindus amid rumours that three cows had been killed.

Read: Protests, tension heighten in Kashmir as trucker attacked during beef row dies

Officials had said that the forensic tests had revealed that the cows whose carcasses were found in Chenani area of Udhampur had died of food poisoning and rumours of slaughter were circulated to provoke communal tension in the Hindu-majority areas of Jammu.

Nine persons have, so far, been arrested and five of them have been booked under State’s stringent Public Safety Act (PSA). However, the main accused, a former corporator, is absconding and police says efforts are underway to arrest him as well.

Protestors clashed with police during the funeral of Butt in his native village Batengo in southern Anantnag district. Police fired teargas and pepper gas canisters to disperse surging crowds, reports said. Though the area had been sealed earlier after imposing curfew, thousands of people relocated there from neighbouring villages and far off places to attend Zahid’s funeral at which pro-azadi slogans were chanted and Pakistan flag waved.

Protests were held also in highway towns of Ramban and Banihal even as the Srinagar-Jammu highway remains closed for the second day in view of protests and heightening tensions. The authorities cited security reasons for ordering closure of the highway-the only surface link between the Valley and rest of the country.

In summer capital Srinagar, curfew-life restrictions are being enforced by riot police and CRPF in politically sensitive areas falling under eight police stations. Similar conditions prevail in southern Anantnag and Bijbehara towns whereas security has been beefed up further in other major towns of the Muslim-majority Valley in view of brewing anger.

Most separatist leaders and prominent activists have been placed under house arrest or detained in police stations to prevent them from relocating to Batengo, 54-km from here, to attend the funeral of Butt. His body was flown here from Delhi in the State aircraft in the evening and then handed over to the family for performing last rites. Clashes had erupted in Batengo and neighbouring areas soon after the news about Butt’s succumbing to burn injuries reached there.

Life has been thrown out of gear across the Valley and also in Banihal and Kishtwar areas of Jammu region as various separatist organizations and trade and transport unions have called for one-day strike to mourn and protest Butt’s murder by “BJP and RSS goons.” In its first in 25 years, Kashmiri Pandit Sangarsh Samiti (KPSS), a representative body of Kashmiri Hindus who stayed put in the Valley in 1990 when majority of the minority community fled it after the outbreak of insurgency, also endorsed the strike call.

Shops and other businesses including banks, educational institutions and most government offices are shut whereas transport is off the roads across the Valley and in parts of Jammu region. Kashmir University and J&K Board of School Education have postponed all examinations which were scheduled for Monday. The first convocation of the Islamic University for Science and Technology (IUST) scheduled for Monday at Awantipore near here and which was to be attended by Union Human Resources Development Minister, Smriti Zubin Irani, too has been deferred. The railways have suspended services between Baramulla and Banihal as a precautionary measure.

The security forces have erected barricades at intersections along Srinagar-Anantnag road. In Srinagar itself, roads have been blocked by them after laying Concertina razor wire and placing ‘bunker vehicles’ in the middle to enforce curfew-like restrictions and hold back protests.

Meanwhile, the State Cabinet which met here with Chief Minister, Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, in chair to discuss various administrative matters including transfers and postings of IAS and KAS officers mourned the death of Zahid. It also sanctioned ex-gratia relief of Rs. 500,000 for the bereaved family.