Valley breathes again, but for a day
Isl’bad under siege Maisuma tense
Ishfaq Mir
Srinagar: Life returned to normal for a day in most of the Kashmir on the call of Hurriyat Conference (G) on Wednesday.
All educational institutions, shops, banks, post offices, petrol pumps and other business establishments remained open for the whole day while shoppers thronged markets to buy essentials.
In Srinagar, traffic police had a tough time regulating the movement of vehicles. People came out in large numbers to shop for Eid-ul-Fitr falling around Sep 10.
The valley has virtually remained shut for over two months because of separatist shutdowns and curfews. As many as 65 people have lost their lives in the police and CRPF action since June 11.
Barring Islamabad district in South Kashmir and Miasuma locality of Srinagar the day remained normal and no untoward incident was reported from any place.
Many government, semi-government and private banks that resumed business activities after four day gap were over crowded with the customers. Long queues of people could be seen outside the ATMs.
Choked roads, traffic jams, unruly scenes were witnessed at many places in the city centre as people swarmed to make necessary purchases. The commuters travelling in the city, particularly through Maulana Azad road, Residency Road, Hari Singh High Street and Jehangir Chowk faced inconvenience due to frequent traffic jams triggered by the heavy flow of traffic.
Meanwhile, tension prevailed in Miasuma locality in the uptown area where a complete shutdown was observed to protest the unprovoked firing on a group of youth by a cop on Monday. Five youth, including Yasir Rafiq, nephew of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Chairman, Muhammad Yasin Malik was wounded when a cop allegedly opened fire upon the youth while they were playing carom. The condition of Yasir continues to remain critical. Fearing widespread protests and clashes, forces were withdrawn from the area in the afternoon. However, the situation was bit relaxed in the evening.
Uneasy calm also prevailed in curfew bound Islamabad district of South Kashmir where at least 17 policemen were injured when protesters attacked their van in Nai Basti area last night.
Reports said hundreds of CRPF and policemen were heavily deployed in Lal Chowk, Reshi Bazar, S K Colony, K P Road, Bus stand, Janglat Mandi, Cheeni Chowk, Malakhnag, and others areas to enforce curfew for the fourth running day. The residents alleged that police and CRPF went berserk and beat up the inmates including women at Kadipora locality. The troops also thrashed the Sehar Khan, Farooq Ahmad Khan of the locality early in the morning. In the evening, intense protests and clashes were reported from a dozen localities.
CRPF and police had also erected barricades and laid barbed wire at many places to prevent people from taking out protest marches in the district against the killing of a teenager by troops on Monday evening.
Meanwhile, at Tahab, Pulwama two policemen were badly beaten and their motorbike burned when protesters found their identity. This incident happened near 1826n CRPF camp who watched the whole incident as bystanders. Later the elderly people from the town rescued the cops.
