5 Dead In Fresh Clashes In Kashmir, Home Minister Meets Top Officials

Srinagar: Five people died and 15 others were injured in fresh clashes in Jammu and Kashmir today, taking the total number of deaths in the violence that erupted in the Valley after 22-year-old terrorist Burhan Wani was killed in July to 65.

A high-level meeting in Delhi - being attended by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and the Director of Intelligence Bureau - will review the situation in the wake of the fresh violence.

Protestors clashed with security forces at a village in Magam area of Budgam district today. Police say they opened fire to disperse crowds as they threw stones at a vehicle of the Central Reserve Police Force or CRPF. Five people were killed in the clashes that followed.

Last night, one person was killed when security forces opened fire at protestors during clashes in Srinagar's Batamaloo area.

In her Independence Day speech yesterday, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti appealed for peace in the Valley and reiterated that "dialogue and not guns can help the people of Kashmir."

Urging people to denounce violence, Ms Mufti said, "If we can't find our solution in the world's biggest democracy, we won't find it anywhere else. We hope that the effort that was incomplete in Atal Bihari Vajpayee's time would now be completed under PM Narendra Modi."

In recent years, Burhan Wani had emerged as a top recruiter for the Hizbul Mujahideen, the largest terror group in Kashmir.

With frequent posts on Facebook that showed him in fatigues and with weapons seized from security troops, he leveraged the seething dissatisfaction of the youth in the state to glamorise militancy.

The daily clashes between huge mobs and security forces since July 8 when he was killed have killed nearly 64 people and left at least 5,000 injured, many of them security personnel.

Curfew in Kashmir has extended over an unprecedented five weeks.