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Onlookers watch as firefighters battle a blaze at a Sufi shrine in Srinagar yesterday |
Nearly two dozen people were injured in the violence, triggered by anger at the perceived delayed response of firefighters in battling the blaze.
There was no immediate confirmation of the cause of the fire at the Peer Dastageer Sahib shrine, one of the most revered Sufi sites in Jammu and Kashmir which houses a relic of the 11th century Sufi saint, Sheikh Abdul Qadir.
Witnesses noticed the fire in the upper floor yesterday morning and it quickly engulfed the wooden structure.
“Ten policemen and an equal number of protesters have been injured in the clashes,” senior police officer Shiv Murari Sahai said.
“We are ascertaining the cause of the fire,” Sahai said.
Local resident Mohamed Yusuf Khan and other witnesses claimed the fire tenders arrived late on the scene and were not properly equipped to handle the blaze.
To control the ensuing violence and prevent large-scale protests, authorities placed the region’s chief Muslim cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and some other separatist leaders under pre-emptive house arrest.
Various separatist parties and religious groups called for a protest shutdown in the state today.
The chief custodian of the shrine, Syed Khalid Hussein, said all relics, handwritten copies of Qur’an and other sacred articles housed in the shrine were safe.
But the main structure, a renowned example of Kashmiri architecture with ornate ceilings and elaborate carvings, was completely gutted.