Separatist leaders, MLA detained as shutdown hits Valley
Srinagar, June 25: Life across the Kashmir Valley was derailed on Monday by a separatist-sponsored shutdown even as the authorities detained senior separatist leaders to prevent their participation in protests.
Shops, public transport, other business establishments and educational institutions remained closed in Srinagar city and other district headquarters of the Valley.
Rail services between Baramulla and Bannihal towns were suspended as a precaution. Internet services were also suspended in south Kashmir areas.
Heavy contingents of police and paramilitary forces were deployed in old city and uptown areas of Srinagar without imposing any restrictions.
The protest was called by the Joint Residence Leadership (JRL), a separatist grouping headed by Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik against civilian killings in Kashmir.
Police took Yasin Malik into preventive custody while Geelani and Mirwaiz Farooq were placed under house arrest.
Independent MLA Engineer Rashid was also taken into preventive custody after he started a protest march from Magarmal Bagh area of Srinagar towards the civil Secretariat on the same issue.
Nearly a dozen of his supporters were also detained by police who intercepted the march.
Meanwhile, a youth sustained a gunshot injury in his thigh on the outskirts of Sopore town during clashes between the security forces and civilian protesters.
The youth was shifted to a local hospital from where he was referred to Srinagar for specialized treatment. Attending doctors have described the condition of the youth as stable and out of danger.
A civilian, Yawar Ahmad Dar, was killed on Sunday in clashes with security forces during an anti-militancy operation in Kulgam district while Shahid Hajam, who was injured in Srigufwara area of Anantnag last week, succumbed to his injuries in a hospital.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Rare polar bear showed up on shores of Iceland. Police shot it
A rare polar bear that was spotted outside a cottage in a remote village in Iceland was shot by police after being considered a threat, authorities said Friday.
The bear was killed Thursday afternoon in the northwest of Iceland after police consulted the Environment Agency, which declined to have the animal relocated, Westfjords Police Chief Helgi Jensson told The Associated Press.
“It's not something we like to do,” Jensson said. “In this case, as you can see in the picture, the bear was very close to a summer house. There was an old woman in there.”
The owner, who was alone, was frightened and locked herself upstairs as the bear rummaged through her garbage, Jensson said. She contacted her daughter in Reykjavik, the nation's capital, by satellite link, and called for help.
“She stayed there,” Jensson said, adding that other summer residents in the area had gone home. “She knew the danger.”
Polar bears are not native to Iceland but occasionally come ashore after traveling on ice floes from Greenland, according to Anna Sveinsdóttir, director of scientific collections at the Icelandic Institute of Natural History. Many icebergs have been spotted off the north coast in the last few weeks.
Although attacks by polar bears on humans are extremely rare, a study in Wildlife Society Bulletin in 2017 said that the loss of sea ice from global warming has led more hungry bears to land, putting them in greater chance of conflicts with humans and leading to a greater risk to both.
Of 73 documented attacks by polar bears from 1870 to 2014 in Canada, Greenland, Norway, Russia, and United States — which killed 20 people and injured 63 — 15 occurred in the final five years of that period.
The bear shot on Thursday was the first one seen in the country since 2016. Sightings are relatively rare with only 600 recorded in Iceland since the ninth century.
While the bears are a protected species in Iceland and it's forbidden to kill one at sea, they can be killed if they pose a threat to humans or livestock.
After two bears arrived in 2008, a debate over killing the threatened species led the environment minister to appoint a task force to study the issue, the institute said. The task force concluded that killing vagrant bears was the most appropriate response.
The group said the nonnative species posed a threat to people and animals, and the cost of returning them to Greenland, about 300 kilometers (180 miles) away, was exorbitant. It also found there was a healthy bear population in east Greenland where any bear was likely to have come from.
The young bear, which weighed between 150 and 200 kilograms (300 to 400 pounds), will be taken to the institute to study. Scientists took samples from the bear Friday.
They will be checking for parasites and infections and evaluating its physical condition, such as the health of its organs and percentage of body fat, Sveinsdóttir said. The pelt and skull may be preserved for the institute's collection.
A Coast Guard helicopter surveyed the area where the bear was found to look for others but didn't find any, police said.
After the shot bear was taken away, the woman who reported it decided to stay longer in the village, Jensson said.
