As soon as the Eid prayers finished at Eidgah in old city, hundreds of youth started raising slogans while marching towards Nallah Mar Road, official sources said here. Police and CRPF personnel, deployed in large numbers at many places in the city, used batons to disperse the protestors. However, the protestors started pelting stone at the security forces, triggering off clashes at Safakadal and Nawakadal areas, the sources said.
They said police fired tear smoke shells to successfully disperse the crowd at Nawakadal but clashes continued in Safakadal area. So far, there were no reports of anyone getting injured in the clashes. Protests were held at Hazratbal Shrine soon after the prayers but the protestors dispersed peacefully, the sources said.
A mob set ablaze a police vehicle in Anantnag district town headquarters, 55 kms from here, this morning after a protest turned violent and started pelting stones at security forces, they said. In Ganderbal district town, police fired tear smoke shells to chase away a group of protestors at Fatehpora chowk, the sources said.
Protests were also reported from Hajin and Sumbal areas of the Bandipora district in north Kashmir. Authorities had made strict security arrangements across the city and other major towns of the valley apprehending that unscrupulous elements might try to instigate violence as happened on Eid-ul-Fitr on September 11.
Police and CRPF personnel were deployed in strength to thwart any moves of holding protests in the city while Lal Chowk area, which witnessed a huge separatist rally on last Eid, was sealed off, the sources said.
Several separatist leaders including chairmen of both factions of Hurriyat Conference -- Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Syed Ali Shah Geelani -- Shabir Ahmad Shah and Nayeem Ahmad Khan were placed under house arrest, they said.
Elsewhere in the Valley, a sombre Eid was celebrated in the memory of those killed during the last five months' agitation. Eid prayers were offered at all major Eidgah, mosques and shrines in the Valley.
Thousands of animals were sacrificed after the prayers to mark the tradition of Prophet Ibrahim, who had offered to sacrifice his son Ismail in the way of God.