Violence rocks Srinagar over death penalty to Afzal

NEW DELHI—Police fired teargas shells and resorted to baton-charge to quell fresh violent protests held in Held Srinagar today against death sentence awarded to Mohammad Afzal Guru in 2001 Parliament attack case and detained six JKLF leaders.
According to the official sources, the demonstrations, which resumed today after a day's break, were staged at Batmaloo and Maisuma areas of the capital of Indian Occupied Kashmir. "Don't repeat Maqbool Bhat (JKLF founder) by hanging Afzal Guru," said some placards carried by women protesters who gathered outside the shrine of sufi saint Hazrat Sheikh Dawood at Batmaloo, a media report said adding, the protest was held by the JKLF.
Police resorted to lathicharge to disperse the protestors and later took JKLF leaders Ghulam Rasool Dar Eidi, Sheikh Abdul Rashid, Noor Mohammad Kalwal and Mushtaq Ajmal into preventive custody, sources added.
Minutes after the protest, groups of youth gathered atMaisuma, the JKLF headquarters in the heart of the city, and pelted police and passing vehicles with stones, besides setting up roadblocks by setting tyres ablaze.
Police retaliated by firing teargas shells. IOK was rocked by violent protests after a Delhi Court on September 26 fixed October 20 for hanging Afzal in Tihar Jail in Delhi. Meanwhile Bhartiya Janata Party activists held a protest in Held Srinagar and demanded the dismissal of IOK government for "promoting"terrorism in the Valley.
Shouting slogans against the Congress for allegedly conspiring to prevent the execution of Mohammad Afzal Guru, facing capital punishment in the Parliament attack case, BJP protesters rallied in front of Vidhan Sabha complex burnt effigies of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, AICC president Sonia Gandhi and IOK Chief Minister Gulam Nabi Azad, said the report. —Online