Clashes keep Srinagar on the boil, Jammu sees protests

The beef row took a violent turn on Friday with old parts of Srinagar city witnessing battles between protesters and police, injuring dozens of civilians, including some journalists. In Lal Chowk here, police rescued two BJP workers who were trying to hoist the Tricolour and BJP flags in the main city centre. The incident resulted in complete shutdown of Lal Chowk and protests in adjacent areas. Tension ran high in both Srinagar and Jammu, triggering panic among people. Police said it has taken precautionary measures, including keeping separatist leaders in custody in Kashmir Valley. In Jammu, protests and shutdown were witnessed in Chenani, Reasi and Udhampur districts on the call of the Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers’ Party against the government’s move to revoke the beef ban. At Udhampur, protesters blocked the highway, but were chased away by police and traffic was restored after a few hours. Police said additional forces have been deployed at all sensitive places.
Shahid Choudhary, Udhampur district magistrate, said post-mortems had revealed that some animal carcasses recovered had no cuts inflicted due to slaughter and the animals died due to poisoning.