life returned to a temporary normal in Kashmir on Thursday afternoon following a call from the separatist groups even as restrictions in several parts of old Srinagar continued as a precautionary measure to curb public protests.
The separatists who are spearheading a protest campaign for the past 97 days since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, in their latest protest calendar had asked the people to resume their daily chores after 5 pm on Thursday. During the “relaxation period”, thousands of people including women and children came out for shopping in capital Srinagar and most of the towns in the countryside. Most people came out in private vehicles but movement of passenger transport was also seen. However, the return of normalcy was affected by the imposition of curfew-like restrictions in several parts of old Srinagar.
The movement of people continued amid heavy deployment of police and paramilitaries at sensitive locations. The vital Srinagar-Jammu National highway and the roads connecting district headquarters were protected with heavy deployment of security personnel. Hundreds of mobile bunkers keep vigil on the movement of vehicles.
The authorities announced to resume movement of vehicles during night hours on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway. The night movement had been banned last month due to security reasons but the traders and fruit growers disapproved the decision.
Sources said protests were held in south Kashmir’s Pulwama town where a preacher and his two siblings had been arrested by the police during nocturnal raids. Police resorted to tear gas shelling at Chitragam village in south Kashmir’s Shopian district to disperse protesters. The protests erupted after the police and paramilitary personnel raided house of a separatist leader who is evading arrest.
Reports of protests against nocturnal raids and arrests came in from several localities in south Kashmir. A police spokesman said that 52 persons were arrested during a campaign against “miscreants and trouble-mongers”. The authorities have arrested more than 5000 persons to curb public protests, many of them have been booked under Public Safety Act that allows the authorities to detain a person for six months without trial.
Meanwhile, a large number of journalists staged a protest demonstration in the media enclave against the continued ban on a local English daily Kashmir Reader.
The journalists demanded revocation of the ban imposed on October 2 by the district magistrate of Srinagar citing reasons that its contents “tend to incite violence and disturb peace and tranquility”.
Representatives of Kashmir Editors Guild last week met with Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti asking her to lift the ban which the Guild termed as “vague, arbitrary and an attack on freedom of press”. Even as Mufti assured the editors for a relook in the decision, the publication has not been restored.
The Editors Guild of India has also asked Ms Mufti to “reconsider the order to ban the publication” of Kashmir Reader.