Broadband internet services of BSNL in Kashmir Valley would be restored on Saturday night after remaining suspended for five days.
The services were snapped on the eve of Eid-ul-Azha on 12 September in view of the apprehensions of law-and-order problems.
Mobile telephone services, excluding the post-paid connections of BSNL were also snapped across the Valley at 4 pm on the same day. However, there was no word on the restoration of such services.
Th restoration of services comes after a seventh-grade student was allegedly killed, with pellet wounds found in his body, in a late Friday clash with security forces in a hilly village on the peripheries of Srinagar city, officials and witnesses said on Saturday.
Mobile internet remains suspended in the violence-hit valley since 10 July after the unrest broke out in the wake of the killing of Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with the security forces on 8 July.
The death, which took the toll to 89 in the ongoing Kashmir unrest, triggered massive demonstrations in Harwan and other nearby areas close to the famous Mughal garden of Shalimar.
The witnesses said the pellet-hit body of Moomin Altaf Ganai, 12, was found late on Friday in the Dachigam National Park, some 25km from the city centre.
Residents said he had gone missing on Friday evening after protesters in the New Theed village of Harwan were chased by security forces.
The boy was missing since Friday 5pm. Villagers searched for him in the area where the protesters were chased and found the body near the Dachigam gate. The body clearly had pellet injuries and apparently bore some torture marks.Mubarik, a village resident told IANS
As the news of the boy’s death spread, thousands of villagers from other areas gathered in Harwan to hold protest demonstrations.
Shouting anti-government and pro-freedom slogans, the villagers carried the body in a procession and were refusing to bury it until culprits were arrested.
Security forces tried to stop the demonstrations by firing tear gas shells to disperse protesters who were throwing stones at them, a police spokesman said, adding the officials were collecting details to ascertain the cause of the boy’s death.
Curfew in Parts of Srinagar
The authorities imposed curfew in Harwan area, blocking entry points to the area as people from other localities tried to reach Harwan to participate in funeral prayers of Ganai.
Restrictions were also imposed in other Srinagar localities as the Kashmir Valley remained paralysed for the 71st consecutive day on Saturday amid endless stone-pelting protests and counter-violence by security forces, triggered by the 8 July killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani.
The curfew remains in force in five police station areas of downtown (interior areas) city and Batamaloo, a police official said. He added that restrictions on assembly of people continued in the rest of the Valley to maintain law and order.
The separatists have extended the protest till 22 September. They have not announced any relaxation in the strike even in the evening hours.
Shops, business establishments and petrol pumps continued to remain shut while public transport was off the roads. Schools and colleges also remained closed due to the strike called by the separatists to protest the deaths of civilians.
Mobile telephone, except postpaid connections of BSNL, and internet including broadband service continued to remain snapped across the Valley since 4pm on 12 September.
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