Srinagar August 3:
            The mass frenzy that has gripped the Valley claimed eight more lives in clashes between protesters and the security forces, with a CRPF jawan hit by a bullet fired by a militant from within the mob at Bumia in Sopore in Baramulla district. Srinagar was virtually cut off from the rest of the country as protesters descended on the airport road, which resulted in hundreds of people missing their flights out of the Valley.
Protesters continued to defy curfew with impunity across the Valley, signalling administrative paralysis, leaving the security forces with no option but to retaliate with firing which took the toll since June 11, when the current spiral of violence began, to 36, of which 20 deaths have taken place in the last three days alone.
With blocked highways, including the arterial road from Jammu, threatening fuel, food and medicine shortages, Islamist groups went house to house in areas asking people to boycott families of local policemen. At several places, mobs snatched weapons from policemen and forced them to join the ‘azadi’ chorus. The rioters set ablaze the Budgam railway station, besides gutting the office of the tehsildar.
Riotous mobs had a free run of the Valley, with the toll from the current spiral of violence since June 11 touching 36. Protesters attacked the house of a legislator in Budgam, while mobs hurled stones intermittently throughout the day at the correspondent’s house in Rawalpura in Srinagar. "It’s virtually impossible to reach the (Srinagar) airport given the restrictions on people’s movement and the rampaging mobs,’’ said a police officer. He said he had to take shelter at the state police headquarters en route to the airport as a mob tried to attack his motorcade.
Gulzar Ahmad from Jammu, who flew in to Srinagar, was stranded on the road for long. ‘‘People were stuck near Peerbagh after rioters didn’t allow them to proceed to Lal Chowk,’’ he said. But SP Asghar Samoon said flights operated normally. A militant fired from within the mob on CRPF constable Om Prakash at Bumia in Sopore in Baramulla district. Prakash was wounded in the stomach and shifted to military base hospital in Srinagar on a chopper, a CRPF spokesman said.
Yaqoob Bhat (22) was killed and several others injured when police fired after a mob went berserk at Kakapora in Pulwama district while another youth, Tariq Ahmad Dar (17), who was injured two days ago, succumbed to his injuries on Monday. Tariq was hit by a teargas canister on the head on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway at Bijbehara on Saturday.
In Kupwara in north Kashmir, Khurshid Ahmed was killed and five others were wounded, when security forces fired to disperse rioters after they attacked the special operations group (SOG) camp in Kralpora area afternoon. Others killed were Ashiq Husain Wani of Kulgam, Bashir Ahmed Reshi and Irshad Bhat at Sangam, Anantnag, and Sameer Ahmed Rah at Batamalloo in Srinagar.
Authorities tried to enforce the prohibitory orders after eight people were killed in Sunday’s clashes. Among those dead were four protesters killed in a blast when they set fire to a police camp at Khrew in Pulwama district. In Rawalpora, Sanatnagar, Bemina and Batamalloo, thousands of protesters took to the streets and raised anti-India slogans. Large mobs from suburban Khrew marched towards Srinagar