Tight security in Srinagar to check separatists’ rally

Srinagar: A security lockdown was in place in parts of Srinagar since Wednesday dawn to thwart a march to Zainakote area on the outskirts of Jammu and Kashmir's summer capital where a 22-year-old youth was killed when he was hit in the head by a teargas canister fired by CRPF at a group of protesters at the last weekend.

Several parts of Kashmir Valley including Zainakote had witnessed protests and clashes between stone-pelting crowds and security forces on Saturday soon after Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, addressed ruling PDP-BJP coalition partners' mega rally in Srinagar on November 7.

The call for Wednesday's ‘Zainakote Chalo’ was issued by separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani “to share the grief of and express solidarity with the parents and other family members of the slain engineering student Gawhar Nazir Dar” on his customary fourth-day ceremony.

The authorities responded by imposing curfew-like restrictions in eight police stations areas of Srinagar. Several separatist leaders and activists placed under house arrest or taken into preventive custody ahead of the PM's visit have not been freed, so far. Mr Geelani also remains under house arrest ever since he returned here from Delhi last month. Police on Wednesday detained some other separatists to prevent them from relocating to Zainakote.

A report said that the police fired teargas canisters to stop a procession of people on way to Zainakote from neighbouring Khushipora on Wednesday afternoon.

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