Normal life went out of gear in Kashmir Valley on Saturday following a shutdown call by separatists and traders to protest against the recent Jammu & Kashmir High Court (HC) order asking police to implement a ban on sale and possession of beef in the embattled State. The authorities had put most of the separatist leaders under house detention and restricted movement of common people in six sensitive police stations in the Capital Srinagar. The situation, however, remained peaceful throughout the Valley.
Both factions of separatist Hurriyat Conference and representative groups of traders and lawyers had called for a shutdown against the recent verdict of a division Bench of the HC comprising Justices Dhiraj Singh Thakur and Janak Raj Kotwal asking the police chief to ensure ban on slaughtering and killing of bovines, especially in Kashmir Valley. The separatists and religious scholars in Kashmir interpreted the court verdict as infringement in the religious matters of the majority community.
The verdict came on September 8 during the hearing on a PIl filed by a lawyer Parimoksh Sethi who is now a Deputy Advocate General, appointed by the PDP-BJP alliance in June. The PIl sought implementation of a dormant law in Ranbir Panel Code that considers slaughtering or killing of bovines an offence punishable under Section 298-A and possession of such slaughtered animal an act punishable under Section 298-B.
All separatists including chairmen of both factions of Hurriyat Conference Syed Ali Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq decried the court verdict and asked people to resist its implementation. Protests were held across the Valley on Friday afternoon and dozens of bovines were publicly slaughtered to exhibit defiance. The protesters said that the court should not interfere in the choice of food especially when it has religious connotations.
All shops and business establishments, educational institutions, banks and petrol pumps remained closed and public transport was off the roads on Saturday. The authorities strictly implemented curfew-like restrictions in jurisdiction of five police stations in old Srinagar and Maisuma area in Civil lines. The roads were blocked with concertina coils and alert police and paramilitary personnel prevented movement of common people. This correspondent was stopped at least at six places in a stretch of five kilometers while traveling in the downtown area amid undeclared curfew.
Separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Yasin Malik, Ashraf Sehrai and Aga Syed Hassan were put under house arrest. The separatists have condemned the restrictions and asked people to “resist any attempt by the Government to infringe in religious matters of Muslims”.
A spokesman of Mirwaiz-led Hurriyat alleged that the organs of the State including Government and Judiciary were perusing a divisive agenda in Kashmir by splitting the society on ethnic and religious lines. He said that APHC and the people of Jammu & Kashmir would not allow such divisive plans to succeed and would resist it tooth and nail.