Fifteen people have been reported killed after a passenger bus fell into a gorge in Reasi area of Jammu district
Restrictions were imposed in north Kashmir and some areas of central Kashmir to thwart the march announced by separatists to Jamia Masjid.
Curfew was on Friday lifted from Anantnag after four days even as life returned to normal in the Kashmir Valley after hardline Hurriyat Conference suspended protests for the day, the last Friday of Ramzan.
Ahead of the meeting with his Indian counterpart, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Saturday said New Delhi should engage itself in talks to resolve the Kashmir issue."We hope New Delhi will realise the ground reality and world trends which essentially include negotiations and talks on resolving outstanding issues," he said. Qureshi was addressing a press conference after his meeting with All Parties Hurriyat Conference Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.
Life in entire Kashmir Valley was thrown out of gear on Friday following a separatist shutdown and incidents of violence those left 14 persons including six cops wounded.
Separatist groups in Kashmir on Thursday reacted angrily to the death sentence awarded to two locals, who were held guilty by a Delhi court in the 1996 Lajpat Nagar bomb blast case, in which 13 persons were killed.The moderate and hard-line groups of the separatist conglomerate All Parties Hurriyat Conference, headed by Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq and Syed Ali Shah Geelani respectively, have called for a protest shutdown on Friday against the death sentence.
An engineering student was hit by a tear smoke shell fired by the police to disperse a stone-pelting mob near his residence.
Life in Kashmir was in Tuesday paralysed in view of a strike called by the hard-line separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani against the conviction of six Kashmiris in the 1996 Lajpat Nagar bomb blast case in New Delhi.
Curfew was on Friday clamped in Bandipora and Kupwara districts and Sopore town in Kashmir in view of a call given by separatists to hold demonstrations to protest the killing of several youth during clashes with security forces in the last one month. The decision to impose curfew in Bandipora and Kupwara districts and Sopore town was taken in view of the decision by the hard-line faction of the Hurriyat Conference to hold demonstrations in all district headquarters.
Leaders of the pro-dialogue moderate All Parties Hurriyat Conference including the conglomerate chairman, Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq, were placed under house arrest on Thursday by the authorities in Srinagar to thwart the proposed march and sit-in by them on World Human Rights Day.Almost all the senior separatist leaders of the moderate group, including Mirwaiz himself, professor Abdul Gani Bhat, Shabir Shah, Naeem Ahmad Khan were placed under house arrest.
