Another youth killed, toll in Kashmir unrest rises to 74

A day before an all-party delegation reaches the state, another youth was killed on Saturday during clashes with the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag district, taking the toll to the ongoing violence to 74.

Basit Ahmad Ahangar, resident of Vessu village in Anantnag, died during clashes between stone pelting mobs and security forces in the village, police sources said.

Reports said the youth had pellet injuries in his legs and a wound in the head when doctors at a local hospital where he had been taken for treatment declared him dead.

In another incident, mobs also torched the house of a ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) block president in Kund village of Kulgam district where Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti had gone during the day to offer condolences to a father whose son had been killed during the clashes.

Meanwhile, Mehbooba Mufti today wrote letters to separatist Hurriyat leaders inviting them to meet the all party delegation led by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh arriving here on Sunday.

Reports said she wrote letters to Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, Muhammad Yasin Malik, Shabir Ahmad Shah, Bilal Gani Lone, Aga Mehmood, Abbas Ansari, Nayeem Khan, Professor Abdul Gani Bhat, the chief of Jamaat-e-Islami organisation and some others in this regard.

Separatists have already announced boycott of any meeting with the delegation and also appealed to traders, industrialists, civil society members etc not to follow suit.

--IANS

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