Kashmir unrest: Valley on the brink after killing of class 12 student Danish Mazoor

Srinagar: When the tension seemed to be easing, the killing of an 18-year-old student at Nadihal village has again put Kashmir on the brink. Protests were reported throughout the Valley following the killing of a 12th class student by government forces in Baramulla district. [caption id=“attachment_2984998” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] People carry the dead body of Danish Mazoor who was killed in an Army firing in Baramulla. Idress Mir[/caption] Eyewitnesses said, hundreds of people gathered at Ladoora Chowk in Rafiabad area of Baramulla on Wednesday morning to protest against the ‘highhandedness’ of government forces. They alleged that the Army was not allowing  apple-laden trucks to move towards the Sopore fruit Mandi, few kilometers ahead of the village. According to eyewitnesses a group of people were protesting in the main Chowk of Ladoora , when some youth started pelting stones at an Army convoy, which was passing through the Highway towards Baramulla. The Army fired at the protesting crowd, leaving six people injured. Danish Mazoor, a class 12th student in Higher Secondary School, Baramulla, who was injured in the clashes, succumbed to his injuries before reaching the hospital. “He had left with his friends in the morning, after protests started, raising slogans in a nearby village. Everyone came back safe but only he came back in a coffin,” Adil Ahamad, Manzoor’s cousin said. “We were protesting because Army had closed a road leading to Sopore fruit Mandi when some one pelted stones from the crowd towards an Army convey, they fired directly at us,” Ajaz Ahmad Wani, who was rushed to a hospital in Baramulla after being injured in the firing, said. [caption id=“attachment_2985002” align=“alignright” width=“380”] Danish Mazoor, a class-12th was killed when the Army opened fire on protesters in Baramulla. Idress Mir[/caption] Villagers said the Army earlier did not allow the fruit laden trucks to reach the fruit Mundi despite the fact that the state government had lifted curfew from all major towns of the Valley. “We normally carry our fruit laden trucks to Mandi during the wee hours of the morning, after the unrest began in Valley. But on Wednesday morning Army’s 22 RR unit was stationed on the road leading to the Sopore Mandi and disallowed us from carrying out trucks,” Manzoor Ahmad Chopan, a fruit trader and a resident of Nadihal area, said. “Stopping trucks irked the people who pelted stones at an Army convey” Adil Ahmad Wani, a resident of Ladoora, said on phone. He added that the government forces opened fire on protesting people, injuring six civilians including Danish Manzoor, who succumbed in a local hospital. Superintendent of Police Harmeet Singh said that there were two incidents of stone pelting in the area and one at the fruit Mandi and another at Ladoora. “At both the places Army vehicles came under heavy stone pelting. The forces exercised maximum restrain, however, few people suffered minor injuries,” he said. [caption id=“attachment_2985008” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Hundreds of people gathered at Ladoora Chowk in Baramulla to protest the highhandedness of the forces. Idress Mir[/caption] The killing comes days before the Central government is kicking off a major political initiative to quell the ongoing unrest in the Valley that has left at least seventy people dead and thousands injured. An all-party delegation led by Home Minister Rajnath Singh will visit Jammu and Kashmir on 4 September and is expected to interact with a cross section of people as part of efforts to bring peace in the Valley. The Central government is also working on track II front to break the logjam in the Valley. Mohammad Yasin Khan, the chairman of Kashmir Economic Alliance (KEA) said that the government was killing the people of Kashmir and the business in the Valley “with same bullet.” The youth was killed in government action as troops went berserk after the people were outraged on the forces for having stopped the fruit laden vehicles, Khan said.