Srinagar, Dec 4 (IANS) Police used batons and tear smoke cansters to disperse Shia Muslim protesters who had assembled to take out a Muharram procession here Sunday afternoon, officials said.
Scores of protesting Shia Muslims clashed with the police in Jehangir Chowk here.
More than three dozen protesters were taken into preventive custody, a police officer said.
The authorities had imposed restrictions in the city to prevent the Muharram procession.
Heavy police and paramilitary reinforcements were moved in the areas falling under three police stations of Shaheedgunj, Maisuma and Kothibagh.
Authorities here have been disallowing the Shia procession on the 8th of the Muslim month of Muharram since the outbreak of the separatist violence in the early 1990s due to fears of the event being hijacked by separatists and resulting law and order problems.
However, small Muharram processions in other parts of the city were allowed Sunday.
