A 20-year-old girl on a morning walk died and her younger sister was injured after being run over by a Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) whose driver was reversing in panic in an attempt to save himself from stone pelters who targeted civilians while enforcing a shutdown in Parimpora area of Srinagar on Tuesday, said police.
Police said the unidentified driver of the Scorpio rushed the injured girls to the hospital and left. However, the elder girl Fouzia Akhtar, an undergraduate student, died in hospital, while her sibling Nadia Akhtar, a Class XII student, is battling for life.
Normal life continued to remain affected for the 81st day in the Valley. Though no area in Kashmir was under curfew, but restrictions under Section 144 on the assembly of people were in place in many parts of the Valley. No untoward incident was reported from any part of the Valley so far.
Meanwhile, the lashkar-e-Tayyeba on Tuesday threatened J&K Education Minister Naeem Akhtar and asked him “not to force people to resume normal work.” People of Kashmir are educated and “can differentiate between good and bad. The present struggle is not against the education system but against Indian occupation.
If Naeem Akhtar doesn’t budge, we will initiate action against him,” Shah said.
Akhtar has been constantly requesting everybody, including the separatist leadership, that since education concerns the future of Kashmir, educational institutions must be left out from the ambit of protests and shutdowns.
Shops, markets and business establishments remained closed while educational institutions remained shut. Public transport also remained off the roads.
While train services between Baramulla in Kashmir and Banihal in Jammu region continued to remain suspended, the two-and-half-km-long Jawahar Tunnel connecting Kashmir with Jammu on the Jammu-Srinagar Highway is still shut for night traffic movement.
However, there was increased movement of private transport in summer capital Srinagar, including lal Chowk, Dalgate, Jawahar Nagar, Rajbagh areas and particularly on the Srinagar Airport Road as flights carrying Hajj pilgrim have been arriving for the past few days.
Reports said that clashes erupted in south Kashmir’s Kanelwan area of Bijbehara in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district after security forces allegedly foiled a proposed pro-freedom march. All entry and exit points to the area were closed by the security forces to thwart the march.
Reports said hundreds of women staged peaceful pro-freedom rallies in Srinagar’s Batamaloo area and Botengo area of Sopore town in north Kashmir. The separatist leadership has been issuing weekly protest calendars since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani on July 8 and have extended the shutdown programme till September 29.