SRINAGAR Paramilitary CRPF and police on Friday burst tear smoke shells to break up a march outside Jamia Masjid in Nowhatta.
Reports said that after congregational Friday prayers concluded at the historic mosque, a group of youth tried to take out a march.
Carrying Pakistan flags and chanting pro-freedom slogans, the youth were intercepted by a posse of CRPF personnel and the police.
Angry youth threw rocks at the government forces to give vent to their anger. In retaliation, CRPF and police lobbed tear gas canisters to disperse the stone-throwing youth, Bashir Ahmad, an eyewitness said.
He said that the clashes that continued for at least an hour, prompted the shopkeepers in the vicinity of the central mosque to pull down their shutters.
According to the eyewitnesses, no one was injured in the pitched battles between protesters and the government forces.
On Friday last, policemen in civvies arrested four alleged stone pelters after mingling with the crowd of protesters around the mosque. The picture of the cops in civvies catching protestors went viral on social media websites like Facebook and Twitter with users compared the strategy of government forces with that of Israeli forces.
