Srinagar- The J&K Police said on Friday that the Kashmiri Pandits protesting against the killing of Rahul Bhat by terrorists on Thursday neglected the pacification requests of the administration and were adamant to block the Airport road, which forced the police to hurl teargas shells to disperse the crowd.
In a statement, the police said that the agitators, who were protesting against the killing of Rahul Bhat, a Kashmiri Pandit, at Chadoora in central Kashmir’s Budgam district, had blocked the main Sheikhpora-Budgam road since Thursday and they suddenly started moving towards the Airport road on Friday.
“Although the magistrate repeatedly requested and tried to pacify the protesters not to proceed towards the very busy and over-crowded Airport road, the agitators ignored the persuasions and kept on moving towards the said road while forcibly breaking all the physical barriers enroute, besides pushing the police and security personnel who were trying to persuade them to stop moving ahead,” the police said.
“The protesters who were adamant to block the Airport road did not pay any heed and instead managed to travel a distance of about 1 km from Sheikhpora,” they added.
The police said that given the topography of the area and huge rush at the Airport road, there were inputs that terrorists may take advantage of the same and may attack the protesters in order to create communal clash/tension.
“Therefore, keeping the security of the protesters in mind, the police were constrained to finally hurl a few teargas shells to disperse them. However, the protesters again re-assembled on the Sheikhpora road and sat on protest, blocking the main road before vacating the area later,” the police said.
–IANS