Srinagar, October 6
Strict curfew restrictions across 10 districts of the Kashmir valley continued for the second consecutive day without any relaxation to prevent the separatists’ march to Lal Chowk scheduled for today. The situation remained peaceful and no untoward incident was reported from any part of the valley, officials said.
These restrictions had been in force since Sunday morning to thwart the march to Lal Chowk and prevent any disturbance in the law and order situation.
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Curfew relaxed
Srinagar: The authorities in the Kashmir valley have decided to relax curfew from 5 am on Tuesday, a police spokesman said here. He said the curfew would be relaxed in all parts of the Valley, including
Srinagar, till further orders.
— UNI
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The separatist coordination committee had called for the Lal Chowk march after it was prevented by the government on August 25, fearing threat to the lives of senior APHC leaders. The present agitation has been in support of the demand for right of self-determination, free movement of people and trade across LoC routes and the withdrawal of special powers to the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir.
Senior leaders of the coordination committee comprising both Hurriyat factions, religious and traders’ bodies were either arrested or kept under house arrest in view of the march. Hurriyat leaders Syed Ali Geelani Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Bilal Lone, Abdul Ghani Bhat and Abbas Ansari continued to be under house arrest.
JKLF chairman Mohammad Yaseen Malik and others, including Javed Ahmad Mir, were also arrested to prevent the march to Lal Chowk. Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has asked the people to resume normal work from tomorrow. He said that any decision regarding the future plan of action would be taken by the coordination committee on Wednesday.
Security personnel were deployed in large numbers in and around Lal Chowk, where barricades had been in place to thwart the march. All lanes and by lanes leading to Lal Chowk were sealed and no movement was allowed in any part of the city.
Local newspapers failed to hit the stands for the second consecutive day today due to strict curfew restrictions. Though local English and Urdu dailies were printed on Saturday night, these could not be distributed on Sunday morning due to the curfew.
The government had issued curfew passes to the mediapersons, but the editors of local dailies complained that these were insufficient for the printing and distribution of the newspapers. Traffic on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway was suspended today due to the curfew in the Kashmir valley.
