Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has called an emergency meeting to discuss the situation in Sopore after people took to streets defying curfew, and staged demonstrations against the killing of two youths in police firing.
Protests broke out on Friday evening after an encounter between militants and the CRPF. The locals alleged one of the men killed in the encounter was not a militant.
An angry mob attacked CRPF men and set a vehicle on fire, prompting the security men to retaliate. Indefinite curfew was clamped in the town, 55-km from here.
Official sources said groups of people defied curfew and staged demonstrations at Hathishah Mohalla, Jamia Kadeem and Krankshivan and pelted stones on law enforcers. However, there was no report of any casualty.
Describing the situation in Sopore as tense but under control, the sources said the state police and paramilitary forces personnel are patrolling the deserted streets.
Trouble started when people took to streets soon after an encounter at Bagh-i-Islam Krankshivan, 55 kms from here, in which security forces claimed to have killed two militants identified as Abdul Qayoom Najjar and Javid Ahmad.
Najjar, a local, was allegedly involved in a series of killings including that of National Conference worker Ghulam Nabi Khan. The locals claimed that Javid was a civilian and his body be handed over to them.
As protestors pelted stones on CRPF personnel who were retreating after the encounter, the paramilitary forces opened fire injuring eight persons, two of whom succumbed in hospital.
CRPF spokesman Prabhakar Tripathy said CRPF opened fire in self defence when the mob set on fire a car of the force. However, locals refuted the claim of CRPF saying that the firing was resorted against innocent people and it was only when the CRPF opened fire that their vehicle was torched.
As the situation went out of control, authorities clamped indefinite curfew in the town around 10 pm last night.
(With inputs from Agencies)
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