Srinagar: About ten people, including a photo-journalist, were injured when a clash took place between demonstrators, protesting against the death of a youth allegedly after torture in custody, and security forces in the summer capital, Srinagar today. However, police said the teenager died due to consuming of poison. Hundreds of people took to streets at Gandarpora Eidgah in the down town city when body of a 17-year-old Qiesar Hamid was brought there for offering “Nimaz Jinazah”.
Locals alleged that he was tortured and later poisoned in the detention. Raising 'pro-freedom' and religious slogans, the demonstrators clashed with the security forces after they tried to hit the Nallahmar road.
Security forces resorted to lathicharge and later burst teargas shells to disperse the demonstrators who were pelting stones. Later, security forces also fired pellets to restore normalcy in the area as demonstrators were refusing to disperse. SMHS hospital sources said about 10 people, some of them with pellets, were admitted to hospital so far. The condition of all the injured was stable, they said adding the photo-journalist Gulzar, representing a leading Urdu Daily Aftab, was also hit by a stone in the leg.
However, police said a complaint was lodged on October 28 in a police station that a 17-year-old Qiesar Hamid, a resident of Eidgah, presently at Nishat went missing since a day earlier. Police said later Hamid was found next morning and was admitted in the hospital for allegedly consuming poison. He died today, evoking massive protests in Eidgah area. (UNI)