The murder of a 20-year-old college student sparked fresh protests in Srinagar on Wednesday. People took to the streets, damaged public property and set a police vehicle on fire.

The student, Asrar Ahmad Dar, a resident of the city’s most volatile neighbourhood, Maisuma, had been missing for the past six days. Police found his mutilated body on Tuesday at Malakhah, a city graveyard.

The news of Dar’s murder set rumour mills rolling and soon almost a dozen versions of the incident were doing the rounds. Some said it was a custodial killing while some said he had been shot dead. Soon young men took to the streets and forced shopkeepers to down their shutters and public and private vehicles off the roads.

In an hour’s time, the entire city was closed down and clashes between the protestors and police and CRPF men broke out at several places.

Protestors stopped a police vehicle, forced the occupants off and set it on fire. They also attempted to set ablaze the escort vehicle of former parliamentarian Janak Raj Gupta but his escorts fired in the air forcing the protestors to disperse. Protestors also damaged Coffea Arabica, the city’s only major coffee shop, a petrol pump and an Automated Teller Machine (ATM).

Dar, an undergraduate student, had gone missing after he left home on the evening of July 3. “He left for a gym centre at Tankipora,” said his mother, Kounser Firdous. “When he didn’t turn-up, I called him. I could only hear the noise. I thought he is riding his bike, so didn’t call him again”. An hour later, Firdous said, she again rang her son but his cell phone was switched off. The family then informed the police.

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