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Yasin Malik takes out procession, BJP objects

Eyebrows are being raised over the authorities allowing the hardline separatist Yasin Malik to lead a procession on Wednesday in…

Yasin Malik takes out  procession, BJP objects

Yasin Malik

Eyebrows are being raised over the authorities allowing the hardline separatist Yasin Malik to lead a procession on Wednesday in the Jama Masjid area of downtown Srinagar to protest against the death of three stone-pelting youths in firing by the Army in Shopian.

BJP and Panthers Party leaders have objected to the authorities allowing Malik to organise the procession that was aimed at further escalating anti-India sentiments in the valley, they alleged.

Harshdev Singh, Panthers Party leader, demanded that action should be taken against those officers who did not take steps to thwart the procession. BJP MLA Ravinder Raina has justified the firing by Army personnel in self-defence to protect an officer from being lynched by a mob.

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Addressing the rally in which people were carrying placards against the Army, Malik said he along with other separatist leaders, Syed Alishah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, will offer Friday pyayers in Shopian town where the youth died in firing and later they will sit on dharna in the main market.

Mirwaiz tweeted that while Geelani and he himself continue to be under house arrest, Yasin managed to lead the protest.

Mirwaiz has described the magisterial inquiry into the death of the Shopian youth as “nothing but a farce and a time buying tactic”.

The incident has left the ruling coalition partners PDP and BJP divided with the latter demanding that the FIR registered by police against the Army unit should immediately be scrapped. However, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has rejected the demand and announced that the inquiry will be taken to its logical end.

Some PDP leaders have supported the Opposition’s demand for arresting the Army personnel who fired at the unruly mob that attacked a convoy of the Army.

An Army officer and six jawans were injured in stone pelting and they resorted to firing when the mob allegedly tried to lynch one of them. Several vehicles of the Army were damaged due to stone pelting.

The PDP has played its cards cleverly by creating an impression that the FIR was registered against the Army personnel after Mehbooba discussed the issue with the Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on telephone.

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