Violent Clashes Erupt In North Kashmir’s Hajin After Slain Militants Laid To Rest

Bandipora: Violent clashes between civilian protesters and government forces erupted in Hajin township of of northern Kashmir’s Bandipora district Monday after the slain militant duo was laid to rest.

Two teenage militants Mudassir Parray, 14 and Saqib Sheikh, 17 were killed in an 18-hour-long gunbattle with government forces Sunday morning in Mujgund area of Srinagar city along with a Pakistani militant who was identified as Ali.

Reports said that immediately after the militant duo was laid to rest, youths took to streets and pelted stones on government forces who retaliated by using tear smoke shells and pellets to disperse them.

The clashes were going on when this report was being filed.

Earlier, reports said that amid massive pro-freedom slogans, women wailed and sang dirges as the bodies were lowered into the graves at Martyr’s graveyard near Jamia Masjid.

They said that the rush of people was so massive that the Eidgah were the funeral prayers were held could not accomodate all of them. And as such two funeral prayers were offered to the slain duo.

Before funeral prayers, the slain were carried through the villages while freedom songs blazed through loudspeakers of the local mosques. The women sang wedding songs for the duo.