Youths wave Pak, IS flags; clash with cops

Clashes broke out between police and a group of <g data-gr-id="35">men,</g> when they staged a protest and waved flags of Pakistan and ISIS, after Friday prayers at the Jama Masjid in Srinagar.

Immediately after the Friday prayers at Jama Masjid, masked men took to streets and started waving flags of Pakistan, ISIS and militant outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad, besides posters of Jamat-<g data-gr-id="36">ud</g>-Dawa chief Hafiz Sayeed and Hizbul Mujahideen supremo Syed <g data-gr-id="37">Sallahuddin</g>, officials said.

The men, they said, also waved the posters of two slain three-year-old boys – Burhan of Sopore and <g data-gr-id="38">Aylan</g> of Syria.While the Sopore youth was killed along with his father in an attack by gunmen on September 20, <g data-gr-id="39">Aylan</g> drowned while he along with his family was trying to migrate to escape fighting back home on September 2.

Soon after the police swung into action, heavy clashes broke out as the men indulged in stone-pelting. The police responded by firing dozens of teargas shells and other non-lethal weapons.

Clashes spread to adjoining Nowhatta chowk, Gojwara and Rajouri Kadal, disrupting normal activities, the officials said, adding that none was hurt in the clashes.

Meanwhile, Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF)chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik, along with over a dozen party activists, was detained on the outskirts of the city to prevent him from visiting Kangan in Ganderbal district of central Kashmir where he was scheduled to address a public meeting during Friday prayers.

“Malik along with many party leaders and activists was arrested near <g data-gr-id="26">Zakura</g> area when he was on <g data-gr-id="33">way</g> to Kangan,” a JKLF spokesman said.

The spokesman claimed that another JKLF delegation led by Noor Mohammad Kalwal and Sheikh Abdul Rashid managed to reach Kangan, 40 <g data-gr-id="34">kms</g> from here, and organised the public rally.

“A protest rally was also held there and the participants lodged their protest against ‘choking of political space’ and arrest of JKLF chairman and others,” he said.