Student protests show no signs of dying down as dozens of students of the Government Higher Secondary School and Degree College in Sopore were injured when police foiled their protest march on Thursday. Students of Kashmir Government Polytechnic College at Gogji Bagh, Srinagar, also clashed with the police.
Valley-wide student protests were sparked by use of force on the students of Degree College College Pulwama on April 15, prompting the government to suspend class work in colleges and higher secondary schools for several days.
Sopore
Dozens of students of Government Higher Secondary School and Degree College Sopore sustained injuries when police foiled their protest march on Thursday, witnesses added.
The students assembled outside their campuses and started marching towards main town amid pro-freedom sloganeering. They were protesting against alleged harassment of MBBS students and police crackdown on students across Kashmir.
The situation took an ugly turn when police resorted to intense teargas shelling to disperse the protesting students. At least 15 students sustained injuries in the police action while as many female students fell unconscious, the witnesses said.
Talking to Kashmir Post, SSP Sopore Harmeet Singh said: “Students had raised Pakistani flag in college premises. Our men went there to remove it when instead students resorted to stone-pelting in which 10 policemen, including a Station House Officer, sustained injuries.”
Students of Welkin Higher Secondary School Sopore also staged protest following which police fired dozens of tear-gas shells to disperse them, witnesses added.
KGP Students Protest
Witnesses told Kashmir Post that students at KGP College at Gogji Bagh in Srinagar assembled this morning and staged protests against arrest of students by police during the past two weeks.
Amid pro-freedom and anti-India sloganeering, the students took out a protest march outside the college premises and resorted to stone-pelting on CRPF battalion stationed in the vicinity of the college, they said.
Police reached the spot and chased the protesting students who however retaliated with stones, triggering clashes. The students entered the college premises and fought pitched battles with forces. However, there were no reports of injuries to anyone. The students left the college premises from its back-side exit.
ARIPANTHAN Observes Shutdown
Meanwhile, a complete shutdown was observed in Aripanthan village of central Kashmir’s Budgam district against “random” arrest of youth during nocturnal raids by government forces, local news agency CNS reported on Thursday.
“The government forces not only picked up 11 youth but also thrashed people in the middle of the night. The forces barged into several residential houses in Aripanthan and Hazarpora localities and picked up as many as eleven youth from their homes. The arrested youth were dragged out of their houses and bundled into the police vehicles. As people resisted, they were thrashed and abused,” the CNS quoted locals as saying.
Confirming the arrest of 10 youth from two villages of Budam district, a police official said, “Arrested youth are known stone-pelters wanted in different cases.”
