The World: Indian shooting injures many Kashmiri mourners

Last updated on September 11th, 2021 at 08:31 am

Several Kashmiris have been injured on Saturday when Indian police dispersed a procession with disproportionate force, eye witnesses said.

Nazir Ahmad, an eye witness, said thousands of mourners have been marching close to the Hamadania Colony on the outskirts of the capital Srinagar as section of the procession to mark the martyrdom of Iman Hussain, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad.

“But some youths shouted pro-freedom slogans. Police charged at us with teargas and pellets.

“Many were injured and some taken to hospital,” he said.

Six of the mourners with pellet injuries had been brought to the city’s largest Sri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital, Dr Nazir Choudhary, medical superintendent of the hospital, instructed KnowAfrika.

“Three have pellet injuries in the eye. Doctors are assessing the severity of their injuries,” he said.

Prominent Shia leader Imran Reza Ansari tweeted: “Want to ask the Jammu and Kashmir Admin if permission was granted for peaceable procession with Covid-19 SOPs why were the mourners of Imam Hussain overwhelmed up brutally.”

He additionally tweeted a photo of an injured mourner on a medical institution bed whose stomach is covered with blood.

During the previous week, police used baton or teargas canisters to disperse mourners in a few smaller processions in a variety of components of Srinagar, eyewitnesses said.

On Thursday, a police spokesman stated three men had been booked under an anti-terror regulation after a video surfaced in which humans have been shouting pro-freedom slogans throughout a comparable procession on the outskirts of Srinagar.

Pakistan in a assertion on Saturday condemned the use of pressure on the mourners.

“Equally condemnable are the restrictions imposed on non secular processions and gatherings throughout Muharram [the first month of the Islamic calendar],” said Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry.

(AnadoluAgency)