J&K: Protests mar Kashmir Valley’s first-ever international marathon event

However, the two-part marathon — a 21-kilometre run for registered participants including professional international athletes and a five-kilometer ‘dream run’ for others — went off smoothly. As the run ended some youth raised pro-freedom slogans at the presentation venue.

The youth hurled stones at police and paramilitary forces and vandalised the venue, removing signboards and damaging the LED screens.

As the situation turned out of control, police resorted to lathicharge and fired teargas shells to disperse the protesters.

The protest and the subsequent crackdown created panic, especially among the school kids and their parents, at the venue. Some kids, who got separated from their parents, were seen crying at the venue.

Later, the police registered a case against some youth for “molesting” the girl participants.

“Some miscreants within the crowd started passing obscene and lewd comments at girl participants and those in the audience. Instances of molestation of girls by rowdy elements were reported at the Kashmir University and enroute…FIRs have been registered into the incidents of molestation and eve-teasing and 12 miscreants have been arrested so far,” said the police spokesman, Manoj Kumar.

PDP president Mehbooba Mufti also expressed her dismay over the alleged incident of molestation and eve-teasing and said, “Such a rowdy behaviour is unacceptable in a civilised society. The state’s civil society should rise against such unruly behaviour where our daughters are being dishonoured by misguided, disruptive elements.”

The organisers of the marathon, however, said they had no idea about any molestation incident. “We haven’t seen anything such as that. If something of this sort has happened outside the venue we have no idea about that…We have successfully completed the event,” said Muzaffar Shah, Station Head of Big 92.7 FM. The event was organised by Big 92.7 FM.