GILGIT, Nov 9: A group of unruly youth shot and injured two young men in a market on Monday and stopped people from protesting against kidnapping and alleged molestation of two students.

The group, called Arjun Group, reportedly opened fired and injured Mr Rahim and Fazal Navid in the Hasan Shopping Market and beat them with iron rods.

The injured were admitted to DHQ hospital, Gilgit, where their condition is stated to be stable.

Sources said the police reached the spot after an hour despite the fact that the police station was located at five minutes drive from the spot.

Witnesses said the SHO told the victims on phone that he did not have a vehicle to reach there.

The injured man, Mr Rahim,told reporters at the hospital that for past three days he had been intercepted by vagabonds who attacked him when he was sitting in his shop.

He said he had nominated a self-proclaimed PML-N leader Jafarullah, Sherdil and Tariq Hussain in the First Information Report.

The sources said the group intimidated the youth when people staged a protest against the kidnapping and alleged molestation of two students of a private school on October 25 in Harpoondas in the suburbs of the city.

One of the victims is still missing for the past two weeks after he dived into the Gilgit River to escape molestation while his classmate was rescued.

The Arjun Group members claim that the abductors are their relatives and, therefore, they cannot allow any protest against or condemnation of their friends.

The sources said the group began threatening and chasing speakers and participants of a mass protest procession held on Nov 2 in Gilgit against the abductors and molestation of students.

The sources said people from all sects condemned the incident, but kept quite after the Arjun group threatened them of dire consequences.

The group thrashed two youths on Thursday and opened aerial fire in a market to frighten people to desist from protesting, they added.

The police have so far taken no action against the culprits, they alleged.

Pakistan People's Party President for Northern Areas Syed Jafar Shah in a statement condemned the kidnapping and said these shameful incidents had defamed the entire Muslim society.

He said those aiding and abetting the criminals involved in this incident were equally responsible for the crime.

In a similar reaction, the PML Northern Areas President, Abdul Wahid Khan, said the accused were terrorists and cowards and should be hanged in public.

Mr Khan said the ruffians supporting the alleged kidnappers deserved no sympathy as they had been snatching the democratic right of the people by threatening them not to hold protest.