Stone pelters resurface in B’mulla

Early Times Report

BARAMULLA, Feb 12: A day after clashing with Police and CRPF for about two hours here yesterday, on occasion of JKLF founder Maqbool Bhat’s death anniversary, groups of youth today formed a protest demonstration and engaged in clashes with the law enforcement agencies.

Immediately after the street confrontation subsided on Friday, SSP Baramulla, Dr Haseeb Mughal and his associate officers began the exercise of identification of the youth who were in the forefront of yesterday’s clashes. Informed sources said that 15 youth were identified with the help of photographs and video footage obtained by Police. Thereafter, Police launched a series of raids to apprehend the ‘stone pelters’.

While as one of these ‘stone pelters’ was arrested in a midnight raid on his home, three more were taken into custody, one after another, in the Civil Lines area today. Within minutes, some 50 youth gathered and they formed a protest demonstration while marching towards Main Chowk and shouting anti-Police and pro-Azadi slogans. As Police intercepted the group, many in the crowd began pelting stones. Ding dong clashes continued for over 40 minutes and subsided only when Police used baton charge and tearsmoke.

SSP Baramulla, Dr Haseeb, told Early Times that Police were actually “nipping the evil in the bud”. He said that nobody, at any cost, would be allowed this year to enact a repetition of the last three years while disrupting peace and holding the population hostage for days, weeks and months.

“With the help of video and photo footage, we managed to identify 15 stone pelters last evening. We immediately launched an operation to get them all arrested. We have arrested four of them and are continuing a series of raids to get rest of the 11 arrested. Our raids will continue in a no-nonsense manner”, he said. He, nevertheless, made an appeal to parents of the youth that they should take full care to ensure that their children did not go astray like hundreds in the last three years. He made it clear that Police would provide every possible support to peace-loving people of Baramulla but none of the people indulging in arson, stone pelting and related criminal activities would be spared.

Though SSP did not identify the stone pelters arrested and still wanted, informed sources revealed that their head had been arrested today. He was identified as Obaidullah Kantroo S/o Ghulam Kakroo R/o Kakkar Hamam, Baramulla. Residents, however, insisted that Kantroo was under training of an engineering course at a college in Srinagar and he landed into Police custody when he had visited his family after several days yesterday. Police sources insisted that Kantroo had mobilized a number of violent demonstrations in the last two years and he, according to these sources, was prominently in the forefront of yesterday’s clashes with Police.

Sources said that those still wanted included the son of a former Councillor of Baramulla Municipal Committee.

After weeks of calm, stone pelting had taken place here on last Friday and it continued on this Friday and Saturday. Officials said that few from either side sustained minor injuries in these clashes.

END