Updated: April 24, 2017, 4:47 PM IST
A TV grab of clashes that broke out between students and police on Monday. (Photo: CNN-News18)
Srinagar: Fierce clashes broke out in the heart of Lal Chowk soon after colleges reopened after a week’s break, around the same time chief minister Mehbooba Mufti was persuading Prime Minister Narendra Modi to extend an olive branch to youngsters.
The government had closed colleges after students across the valley clashed with police and CRPF in Kashmir on April 17.
This morning when colleges reopened, students of SP higher secondary school poured on the streets and started protesting. The police swung in action and tried to prevent them from staging a protest.
The students retaliated with stones and brickbats.
Frightening scenes were witnessed at MA Road after irate students surrounded a police vehicle and attacked it with stones.
Some of the students climbed on to the roof of the vehicle thumping their feet. Others pelted the vehicle with stones. The police showed great restraint and fired scores of tear smoke shells.
“We are not using any force by firing live ammunition but occasionally using smoke shells to disperse the students,” a cop who is part of the crowd control told News18.“There can’t be more restraint than what we have shown today.”
The clashes forced closure of shops and led to huge pile up of vehicles forcing the police to suspend traffic on M A Road.