One killed in security forces firing in Kashmir

Srinagar, April 18: One person was killed on Saturday in security forces' firing on protesters in Jammu and Kashmir's Badgam district, police said. Protesters pelted stones at a contingent of the security forces in the morning in Narbal village of Badgam, 18 km from here, on Srinagar-Gulmarg road. The protesters smashed vehicles plying on the road. After batons and tear-gas failed to quell protesters, security forces used fire-arms against them. Suhail Ahmad Sofi, a teenager, suffered a gunshot injury and was taken to the Jhelum Valley Hospital in Srinagar where doctors pronounced him dead, a senior police officer told IANS. The protest was staged in the village following a call for shutdown in the Kashmir Valley by separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani. Geelani called for a shutdown against the arrest of separatist leader Masrat Alam.