‘Pakistan using web to radicalise youth’: J-K police chief Dilbagh Singh

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Asserting that Pakistan is helping terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, state police chief Dilbagh Singh on Friday said the neighbouring country’s use of social media to radicalise the youth in the Valley remain a ‘big challenge’.

He, however, exuded confidence that the police and the armed forces will rise to the challenge as they had done many times in the past.

The director general of Jammu and Kashmir Police was interacting with a group of trainee officers from the College of Air Warfare, Secunderabad, at the police headquarters in Srinagar.

Restrictions again

Restrictions imposed in parts of Srinagar on Friday. Concertina wires blocked roads at many places in Srinagar city, while there was heavy deployment of security forces.

Jamia Masjid at Nawhatta was closed owing to the restrictions. It is for the fifth consecutive Friday that prayers were not held in the grand mosque where separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq is the chief priest. There were areas in the city where restrictions were not imposed, but people preferred to remain indoors.

‘It appears as if a civil curfew is in place. Most of the people did not leave their homes today,’ said Majid Ahmad, a resident.

Public transport was off the roads and markets, and businesses were closed in most of the Valley. A police spokesman said in a tweet: ‘Friday prayers concluded peacefully across valley and no incident across valley has been reported so far’.

A police official of north Kashmir’s Baramulla said they had not imposed restrictions this Friday. ‘Unlike last Friday, we did not impose any curbs today. The situation remained largely peaceful and prayers were also held in major mosques,’ he said.

death probe

As normal life in Kashmir continues to remain disrupted, the Jammu and Kashmir government has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the custodial death of a young person at Handwara in Kupwara district.

Police said Reyaz Ahmad Thekri, a resident of Nandpora Malikpora, who was arrested in a 2018 case on Wednesday, was found dead in the lock-up on Thursday. The death triggered tensions in Handwara and its adjoining localities. A police spokesman said the preliminary investigation suggested that Thekri had hanged himself.

‘The accused person was found dead in the toilet attached with the lockup. The preliminary investigation suggests that the accused hanged himself,’ he said.