Srinagar: Kashmir Valley continued to remain tense on Tuesday morning and authorities decided to continue curfew restrictions the third consecutive day.
Tension was palpable in the Valley after renewed violence in the last 24 hours killed seven people.
The curfew was imposed in all 10 districts of the Valley on Sunday morning and protesters defied it on Monday, triggering clashes with security forces in which seven died and 70 others injured.
Three senior separatist leaders, including Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik, were arrested to prevent their participation in the march. Authorities said they were arrested as they feared they might be targeted by "vested interests" during the march.
Meanwhile, police conducted raids at many places and picked up several second rung separatist leaders. Army was assisting state police in other districts barring Srinagar to maintain law and order.
After a massive show of strength last Friday at the Eidgah grounds where tens of thousands offered prayers, it was believed that the Lal Chowk march would be joined by an equal number of protesters if not more.
"We had credible inputs that the senior separatist leaders would be targeted by vested interests during the Lal Chowk march," an official statement issued in the wake of Sunday's curfew imposition had said.
There were scores of curfew violations across the Valley yesterday and the security forces after failing to quell the mobs fired at them at Hajin in north Kashmir Bandipora district, at Narbal on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road in Srinagar district, at Tahab in Pulwama district, and Handwara in Kupwara district.
The spokesman of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Prabhakar Tripathi, denied media reports that one security personnel had died after having been fired upon by somebody from the mob at Hajin.
The incident had been earlier confirmed by the CRPF control room in Srinagar.
Commenting on the overall situation in the Valley, state director general of police, Kuldeep Khoda told IANS: "The situation is well under control. There have been some incidents of curfew defiance by small mobs in some places, but Srinagar city which had been the centre of violent protests during the last ten days was totally peaceful barring a few incidents of stone pelting by children.
"Our orders are clear to the deployed security men, use of maximum restraint and minimum force.
"The curfew was imposed to maintain law and order which will be lifted once it is not required to protect the life and property of the people".(With inputs from PTI and IANS)
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