Students protest in Pulwama for release of their ‘colleagues’

Pulwama: Clashed erupted in Pulwama town Monday after students took out a protest rally demanding release of their colleagues who they said have been detained by police during last week’s protests.

Witnesses said that hundreds of students from Government’s Mehjoor Memorial Higher Secondary School at Chatapora locality marched upto Government Degree College. The students now joined by the College students marched to the Police station in Murran Chowk located more than half a kilometer from the college, the witnesses said.

The protesters were demanding release of their colleagues who they say have been detained by the police in the last week when protests erupted in the Pulwama College on April 15 against the entry of an army vehicle into the college premises a day before. However, police fired teargas shells to disperse the protesters, witnesses said, triggering clashes between students and police.

A police official said that the situation was “good” till the forenoon, but turned “bad” after nearly 300 students converged near the police station and started pelting stones on the station and the police chased them away.

“The protesters forced the market shut and disturbed the movement of the traffic on the roads. We tried to disperse them by chasing them away but we were forced to use 3-4 teargas shells after the stone pelting intensified and the situation went out of control,” the official said, wishing not be named.

“Three youths were arrested in the last week for stone pelting and today four protesters were arrested for pelting stones on the police station,” he said, adding, that police does not detain or arrest students but “criminals and trouble makers”. (KNS)