SRINAGAR, March 15: Police in occupied Kashmir used teargas for the third straight day on Friday to disperse Muslim demonstrators protesting controversial remarks that appeared in a newspaper about the region’s holiest shrine.

They said angry protesters pelted stones at police in several places in Srinagar.

Muslim youth protested for two days earlier this week after the Asian Age quoted Vinay Katiyar, a leader of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), as saying a hair in Srinagar’s Hazratbal shrine was from a Hindu priest rather than from the beard of the Holy Prophet (pbuh).

Katiyar’s office says he has denied making the remark to the newspaper.

Dozens of Muslim worshippers after Friday prayers gathered outside Jamia Masjid in Srinagar and shouted slogans against the VHP and the Bharatiya Janata Party. “Nearly half a dozen vehicles were damaged in another downtown locality in stone pelting by protesters,” a police official said.—ReutersL