One more injured civilian dies in Kashmir

A 17-year-old youth on Tuesday succumbed to injuries sustained on Sunday while security forces fired on protesters.

Normal life remained crippled in Kashmir for the third consecutive day due to strike and restrictions.

Health department officials said Sufail Bhat of Nagbal village in Shopian succumbed to injuries at SMHS hospital in Srinagar on Tuesday morning. He had suffered bullet wounds in the abdomen at Badigam, Shopian.

Five civilians and as many militants, including Hizbul-Mujahideen top commander Sadam Padder and Kashmir University's assistant professor Mohammad Rafi Bhat, were killed in the encounter and the subsequent clashes on Sunday. With the death of Sufail, the civilian toll has reached six.

While separatists had called for a strike on Monday and Tuesday against the killings, authorities imposed curfew like restrictions in sensitive areas of the Valley to thwart any protest marches. However, despite restrictions, reports of clashes between stone pelting youth and security forces poured in from different areas of Kashmir.

On Monday evening, a tourist from Chennai died after a stone thrown by a mob hit him in the head near Narbal on Srinagar-Gulmarg road. The deceased, R Thirumani, was travelling in a Tavera towards Gulmarg when the incident occurred.

All educational institutions, including universities, colleges and schools remained closed for the second day while intra-Kashmir train services also remained suspended.

Authorities have also ordered cellular companies to snap mobile Internet services while the speed of broadband connections have been lowered.

Separatist leaders, Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, have been placed under house arrest while Yasin Malik continues to remain under preventive detention. Exams scheduled for Tuesday have been postponed.