Fresh clashes erupted between security forces and protesters after the killing of a youth in police firing sparked tension in the Kashmir Valley on Sunday.

Police fired teargas shells and used batons to disperse stone-pelting mobs in Srinagar where authorities deployed police and CRPF personnel in strength to maintain law and order, officials said.

However, no one was injured in the clashes which took place at Maisuma in the heart of the city and its adjoining areas including Red Cross, Kokerbazar, Madina chowk and Nai Sadak, they said.

A youth Javid Iqbal was killed when he was hit by a rubber bullet during a clash between police and protesters at Nowhatta in interior city following a general strike called by separatists in support of their demand for right to self-determination on Saturday.

Separatists call for shutdown

However, separatist leaders called for a shutdown to be observed on Monday when the Election Commission of India will hold meeting of all mainstream political parties in Srinagar for assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir.

Members of coordination committee of two factions of the separatist Hurriyat Conference met at the residence of hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani to decide on the programme for the week starting on Monday.

“There shall be a general shutdown tomorrow (Monday) against the all-party meet called by the Election Commission of India to explore the possibility of elections in the state,” Geelani, chairman of his faction of the Hurriyat said.

“The shutdown has also been called against the brutal killing of a youth in Nowhatta Saturday by the police and the decision of the government to detain and shift senior separatist leaders to jails outside the valley,” Geelani added.

He asked people to resume normal activities of life on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to be followed by peaceful protests on Friday.

Elections are due in October in the state currently under governor’s rule since July 11 when the previous Congress-led government was toppled after the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) pulled out of the alliance following differences over the Amarnath land row.

The land row has had the state on the boil amid conflicting claims over a piece of forest land allotted to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board that manages annual pilgrimage to a cave shrine in south Kashmmir Himalayas.

Nearly 50 people have died, mostly in police and paramilitary firing, during the last two months of protests over the land row.