At least 14 injured as J&K protests over Khamenei’s killing

Srinagar: At least 14 people, including six security personnel, were injured on the second day of protests that erupted in Jammu and Kashmir following the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a joint US-Israeli attack, officials said.

Authorities have imposed restrictions to curb people’s movement, shut down education institutes and throttled mobile internet speeds in the Union territory as precautionary measures.

Officials said that 75 rallies were held at various places in the Kashmir Valley, while a few demonstrations were held in the Jammu region as well. Security forces had to use mild force to disperse the protesters in some areas.

Protests broke out in Bemina, Gund Hassibhat, Saidakadal, Nigeen, Foreshore Road and Jehangir Chowk areas of Srinagar city, in the Pulwama town of south Kashmir, and Budgam in central Kashmir -- all of which have a large Shia population, as agitators marched through the streets, raising anti-US and anti-Israel slogans.

While most of the protests were by and large peaceful, clashes erupted at a few places, forcing the security forces personnel to use mild force to disperse the protestors, the officials said.

They said 14 persons -- eight protestors and six security forces personnel -- were injured during these clashes in the Kashmir valley.

Severe restrictions had been placed on the movement of people in parts of Kashmir. The curbs were imposed against the backdrop of a call for a one-day strike given by Mutahida Majlis-e-Ulama (MMU) chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.

He had urged people to observe the strike “with unity, dignity, and in peace”.

The authorities had sealed Ghanta Ghar at Lal Chowk with barricades erected all around it, while a large number of police and paramilitary CRPF personnel were deployed across the city to prevent gatherings of protestors, officials said.