A 70-year-old man was stoned to death by a mob in the Anantnag district of South Kashmir on Friday, after being suspected as the ‘braid-chopper’.
The incident was reported in the Danter village of Anantnag where the elderly man Abdul Salam Wani was beaten to death with bricks as a mob “mistook” him for a braid-chopper when he came out of his house early morning to answer the call of nature.
Wani died on the spot and the police has registered a case and initiated investigations.
The top separatist leaders Syed Alishah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik had given call for massive protests across the valley after the Friday prayers, against the incidents of “braid-chopping”.
The main protest was planned in the Jamia Masjid area of Srinagar after the sermons of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.
However, Geelani and the Mirwaiz were put under house arrest and Malik was taken into custody by the police.
Internet and mobile service across Kashmir have been suspended. Restrictions were imposed in five police station areas of downtown Srinagar to prevent violence.
However, a group of separatists held a demonstration at the residence of Geelani.
On Thursday, the police during investigation of a complaint of ‘braid-chopping’ in the Badhran village of Anantnag found that the 16-year-old girl had ‘cooked up’ the story of her ‘braid-chopping’. Her medical examination revealed that her hair was not chopped, said the police.
The police rescued two labourers from a violent mob and registered a FIR against the miscreants who raised a false alarm at Pattan in Baramulla against these labourers whom they accused of being braid-choppers.