Srinagar: Intense clashes erupted in south Kashmir district of Anantnag between security forces and protestors, who were demonstrating after Friday prayers against ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in the Rakhine state of Myanmar.
Meanwhile, six policemen, including two officers, were injured and a police vehicle was torched by miscreants during the clashes.
Moderate Hurriyat Conference (HC) chairman Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq, who also heads “Mutahida Majlis-e-Ulema (MMU)”, joined by several other religious had urged people to hold peaceful protests after Friday prayers in solidarity with the Rohingya Muslims.
Official sources said hundreds of protestors took to streets after Friday prayers were over in the mosques in Lal Chowk and adjoining areas in Anantnag.
Shouting slogans in favour of Rohingya Muslims and against Myanmar government, the protestors urged the international community, including Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and United Nations, to break their silence over the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims and ensure their safety.
The protestors later tried to take out protest march. However, security forces deployed in the area resorted to lathicharge and burst teargas shells to disperse the demonstrators, who were regrouping and pelting stones.
They said some miscreants set ablaze a police vehicle during the clashes in which six policemen, including two officers, were injured. The injured were immediately taken to a hospital.
Business and other activities came to halt in the affected areas, where the clashes between security forces and protests were going on. The clashes were still going on when the reports last came in.
