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| Pro-freedom sloganeering leaves Omar, Farooq red faced at Hazratbal | | Protests in Eidgah dampen Eid spirit | | Jehangir Rashid
SRINAGAR, Aug 9: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and his father Dr. Farooq Abdullah faced an embarrassing situation on Friday at Hazratbal shrine as a couple of persons raised 'pro-freedom' and anti-India slogans in their presence during the Eid congregation early in the morning.
Sources told Early Times that both Omar and Dr. Abdullah turned red faced as the duo raised slogans in favour of 'freedom'. Slogans were raised despite heavy deployment at Hazratbal shrine due to the presence of the state chief minister and the union minister.
The security personnel were caught clueless by the sloganeering and they whisked away two persons to some unknown destination. The sloganeering led to some trouble at the shrine and some of the people objected to the whisking away of the two persons. However, the situation turned normal and the Eid prayers were offered without any further disturbance.
"As the people were assembling at the Hazratbal shrine to offer Eid prayers, couple of persons sitting some rows back to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and Union Minister for New & Renewable Energy Dr. Farooq Abdullah stood up and started raising anti-India slogans. This caught attention of the people who had assembled at the shrine," said sources.
Sources said as soon as Eid prayers culminated both Omar and his father left the shrine without greeting the people apparently disturbed by sloganeering. They added that workers and activists of National Conference also followed their leaders and hurriedly left.
In the meanwhile, police used force, fired some shots in air and lobbed dozens of teargas canisters on groups of protesters who resorted to heavy stone pelting on police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel after the culmination of Eid prayers at Eidgah in downtown Srinagar.
Reports said that some persons including a girl sustained injuries due to police action. The ding dong battles between the two sides carried on for almost two hours disrupting normal movement of people on Eid.
As soon as the Eid prayers ended, groups of youth took to ding dong battles with police.
The youth were protesting against the house arrest of chairmen of parallel factions of Hurriyat Conference, Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.
Police and security forces after facing the wrath from protesters lobbed teargas canisters on them in order to bring the situation under control.
The protesters also attacked a CRPF camp stationed in a house at Seki Dafar, some distance away from Eidgah. They also pelted stones and attacked the Safa Kadal police station. Some of the protesters along with some police and CRPF personnel sustained injuries in the incident. A girl who was passing through the area was hit by a teargas canister and suffered injury in her eye.
In the meantime, lakhs of devotees turned up at Masjids, Shrines and Eidgahs to offer special Eid prayers across length and breadth of Kashmir valley. People offered Eid prayers and exchanged Eid greetings on this occasion. Children wearing colourful dresses could be seen enjoying each and every bit of their outing and enjoyed Eid to the hilt. |
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