Police firing creates panic in lal Chowk, youth held

Srinagar: Police on Thursday fired shots in air while arresting an a youth on the charges of stone pelting in Abi Guzar area of the Lal Chowk in this capital city.

Reports and eyewitnesses told KMW that panic gripped central market, Abi Guzar, in the city’s commercial hub this afternoon when police fired warning shots while arresting a PCO owner identified as Mohammad Altaf, son of  Fayaz Ahmad Shiekh of Abi-Guzar. The gunshots, eyewitnesses said forced the shopkeepers in Lal Chowk to pull down their shutters and run towards the safer places. The commotion continued for nearly 30 minutes.

“I was attending a customer, when the gunshots triggered panic.  In a jiffy, I pulled down the shutter of my shop,” Mohammad Asif, a salesman at a readymade store said.

“We thought it was a militant attack. Later, we came to know that police has arrested the PCO owner,” he added.

A police spokesman said that besides abetting and organizing the stone pelting, the PCO owner, Mohammad Altaf alias Shera was also wanted in intimidating and forcing shopkeepers and restaurant and hotel owners for observing shutdowns across the city. The spokesman said that the alleged stone pelter had recently attacked a waiter in a local hotel.

“Following a tip-off, Police today laid a successful trap and managed to apprehend this wanted miscreant, although, there was some resistance from some people who tried to enter into scuffle with the police. The police men showing courage and foiling any disruptive action of the mob apprehended the wanted person.  However, police had to fire some shots from a pump action gun in the air to disperse the mob that were likely to disrupt police action,” the police spokesman added.