Udhampur, August 9
Defying curfew, hundreds of protesters took out massive demonstrations at Udhampur and adjoining localities here today. The day witnessed huge processions and rallies all over the district.

Earlier, district unit of the Amarnath Yatra Sangharsh Samiti had announced to march towards Jammu to hold protests in front of the visiting delegation, but they were not allowed to do so.

The local police along with the Army had created barricades and plugged all routes connecting with the Jammu-Srinagar national highway.

Today morning at around 11 am, hundreds of people took out protests and trooped towards the national highway.

A large number of people who managed to reach the national highway were returned after Army jawans intervened.

Rallies were also taken out at the Main Bazaar, Gole Market, Adarsh Colony, Sallain Tallab, Chabutra Bazaar, Shiv Nagar, Bharat Nagar, Karan Nagar, Dabbar Chowk and the BSNL colony.

Agitating protesters strongly criticised Governor N.N. Vohra for adopting oppressive measures to crush the ongoing agitation in the Jammu province.

The protestors demanded that a judicial probe be ordered into all firing incidents that took place during the ongoing agitation.

They also shouted slogans against the SSP, Samba, to whom they blamed for the Samba firing incident in which two youths lost their lives.

A large number of protesters, including women, children and elderly people, also joined the rallies and demanded restoration of land to the Amarnath Shrine Board.

When evening dawned, people took out a “torchlight” procession in the town, while in parts of Udhampur, people came out on the rooftops and started beating utensils.

Meanwhile, district president of the Dogra Kranti Dal, Surjit Singh, said the Dal appreciated the efforts of the Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti to continue with the agitation despite all odds.

The Dal has extended its support and pledged to create awareness among people at the grassroots level.

However, there were reports of protest demonstration by members of a particular community in support of Amarnath land issue in the evening.

Jammu, August 9
State unit of the Shiv Sena (Bal Thackery) has called for joint efforts for removing misgivings about the demand for the restoration of 800 kanals of land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB).

Shiv Sena chief Ashok Gupta said today that several political leaders, especially those from the south, were under the impression that the BJP, the Shiv Sena and the VHP, had been demanding land for themselves at Baltal.

Talking about the all-party meet convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi on August 6, Gupta said: “I was surprised when a number of political leaders asked me whether the BJP and others were demanding the land for themselves”.

Gupta said he was in favour of interacting with members of the all-party delegation, who reached Jammu today. “But neither the Centre nor the state government created a congenial atmosphere for the talks”, he said.

He said during the all-party meet, the issue regarding Governor N.N. Vohra was
not discussed.

Gupta said he was surprised when external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee announced after the meeting that the Governor would not be recalled.

He said: “It is not possible for me and others to meet the all-party delegation when one of its members, Mehbooba Mufti, continues to issue provocative statements”.

Endorsing Gupta’s views, Panthers Party general secretary Harsh Dev Singh said: “We boycotted the delegation because a congenial atmosphere required for fruitful discussions was not created”.

He said the Centre and the state government should have undertaken measures to reduce the level of anger by releasing all arrested people and by sanctioning suitable ex-gratia relief for the kin of those killed in police and Army fire.

Both Gupta and Harsh wanted the Centre to announce its decision on restoration of land which was to be used by the board for a period of two months.

And during these two months, prefabricated tents were to be established on a
temporary basis.

They said: “Neither the land was to be carried away from Kashmir nor for raising permanent structures nor for carrying out agricultural practices”.

Srinagar, August 9
After an Urdu daily carried reports that a “Quran” had allegedly been burnt, Muslims in Akhnoor took out massive protests, leading to a complete shutdown here. Although the police seized copies of the Urdu daily, the protests continued.

The news of the burning of Quran spread liked wildfire and hundreds of people took out rallies in Baramulla, Sopore, Bandipore and Anantnag among other places.

“People’s sentiments are already running high these days against the protests in Jammu and it galvanised the crowd”, Iqbal Lone, a resident of Baramulla, said.

Both factions of the Hurriyat, headed by Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, had yesterday asked people not to observe a shutdown on their own and do so only when called for.

Their statements came after a shutdown was being observed in Srinagar for the past few days. Though some of them were called for by Geelani and Malik, the markets remained shut even when there was no call.

Meanwhile, the deteriorating condition of JKLF chairman, Yasin Malik, who was admitted to a hospital two days back, aggravated matters.

His supporters stopped traffic in Srinagar and asked traders to shut down their shops. Malik’s supporters said he was refusing medicine and food at the hospital.

Meanwhile, people said they would continue with their protest if the government conceded the demands of the Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti, spearheading the agitation in Jammu.

Srinagar, August 9
The Sikh Co-ordination Committee, Kashmir, here today expressed concern over the recent developments risen out of the controversy over land row.

The committee comprising representatives from Sikh community, including political, and social organisations held a meeting at the Gurdwara Shaheed Bunga, Burzullah, here today.

They expressed their views in favour of restoration of peace in the state, a committee spokesperson said, adding that a Sikh delegation also discussed the issue with the Hurriyat Conference leaders, including Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Abdul Ghani Bhat, Shabir Shah, Nayeem Khan and Sajjad Lone.

Meanwhile, the Sikh leaders have also approached leadership in Punjab to cooperate in normalizing to and fro movement of trucks on Punjab roads.

Jammu, August 9
Regarded as the backbone of the state economy, tourism industry here has been completely crippled following the month-long agitation in both the regions of the state over the land row, as majority of the Kashmir-bound tourists are now turning towards other hill stations.

The current season used to be the peak season of tourism as schools throughout the country observed summer vacations, but due to the prevailing unrest, the tourism industry has been worst hit and the tourists are exploring other options to spend their vacations.

State tourism department sources said the inflow of tourists visiting both the regions of the state in the current season had completely diminished.

“Before the agitation broke out, we expected the inflow of tourists to break all the records, but situations worsened after the agitation started as now there is completely zero inflow of tourists in the state,” a state department officer said.

During the past one month, almost 95 per cent of the booking had been cancelled as tourists preferred Kullu and Manali in Himachal Pradesh over Gulmarg and Patnitop as these places were more peaceful, Darshan Kumar, a tour operator, said.

Along with decline in the number of tourists who visit the state to spend leisure time, the number of tourists who come here for pilgrimage has also dwindled.

“There has been remarkable decline in the number of pilgrims who come to visit the Vaishno Devi Shrine and the number of pilgrims coming for the Amarnath Yatra have also gone down to a great extent.” a state tourism department officer said.

In Kashmir, people associated with the tourism industry were feeling the heat of the ongoing agitation, as world famous hill resorts of Gulmarg and Pehalgam here were presenting a deserted look, the sources said.

Jammu, August 9
A day after a top Army commander revealed about the possible strikes by saboteurs during the prevailing unrest across the Jammu region, the police received intelligence inputs of a terror attack during Independence Day celebrations in Jammu.

Official sources said following the inputs, the Jammu and Kashmir Police (JKP) strengthened the security at the Parade Ground including Mini Stadium where the main function was held every year.

Though the Army, CRPF, RAF and the police have been deployed in strength in Jammu because of the ongoing agitation over the Amarnath land row, we have been taking all necessary precautions to ensure incident-free Independence Day celebrations, the sources said.

“If militants could get access to voter identity cards, getting curfew passes was no big deal for them and hence we were not leaving anything to chance,” they said.

“We are already on guard and every individual on the street is being put to thorough frisking. Instructions have been passed to different security agencies to strictly impose curfew restrictions besides minutely checking credentials of people carrying identity cards and curfew passes,” the sources said.

Apart from main venue, the police has increased night vigil at various entry points to the temple city, besides deploying policemen at vulnerable places within the city.

Official sources said the Laskhar-e-Toiba (LeT), which has a nexus with the HuJI and the SIMI, would try its best to create trouble on August 15.

They added the HuJI in consonance with the LeT had also been trying hard to set up its sleeper cells in the state.

An officer of the police intelligence wing said, “There are intelligence inputs that the LeT may try to disrupt the Independence Day celebrations.”

Jammu, August 9
Over 50 protesters were arrested today for violating curfew orders here and the Army staged flag marches in several districts of the Jammu region as the all-party delegation headed by Union home minister Shivraj Patil held talks with political leaders on the Amarnath land transfer issue.

Reviewing law and order situation in Jammu and Kashmir, Patil today asked the state government to deal the current situation with a balanced approach.

Curfew orders were defied and protest rallies held at various places in Jammu, Samba, Kathua and Udhampur districts, officials sources said. Activists of the Amun Paigam Yatra were arrested here for defying curfew orders.

“However, there were no violent clashes with the police or the Army. The situation is tense but under control,” the sources said.

Meanwhile, a 150-member Muslim peace delegation were stopped by the police from entering Jammu and Kashmir at Kathua district.

Led by Jharkhand Shahee-Imam Moulana Hizb Rehman Merthi, the peace march of the Rashtriya Muslim Manch (RMM) were stopped and asked to return after an hour-long protest at Lakhanpur inter-state terminal.

“We did not allow the delegation to enter the state as curfew was imposed in
Kathua and adjoining areas. We sent them back,” Kathua DC Mandeep Kour told
PTI on phone.

They have given a memorandum for Governor N.N. Vohra and we have received it, she said.

Merthi said, “It is unfortunate the administration and police stopped us from entering the state.”

He said the land given to any religious place or shrine is never taken back and if some one does so it is a sacrilegious act as per Islam.

The delegation include Indian Muslim Parishad president, Imam Umrah Ahmed Ulmani and former president Central Haj Committee Tanveer Ahmed.

Jammu, August 9
Even as the all-party delegation holds talks with the parties over the Amarnath land row, residents in the curfew-bound areas continued to face several problems.

The district administration today didn’t give any relaxation in curfew. The Army had erected barbed wires in lanes and by-lanes forcing the people to stay indoors.

In certain areas, the Army, police and agencies refused to honour curfew passes issued by the district administration thereby posing problems to the people including employees of different departments falling under essential services.

City resident Yogesh Sharma said: “No untoward incident was reported in the last few days when curfew was relaxed but I fail to understand why the administration decided the other way today little bothering about problems of the people.”

Another resident Swati Jamwal said, “The city had been shut from the last over a month now. The administration should have at least thought about small children, who cannot cope without milk. This morning we were not allowed to fetch milk for our children,” she rued.

A newspaper hawker Madan said, “This morning Army soldiers did not allow us to distribute newspapers to our clients. They refused to acknowledge curfew passes.”

Sharing similar views, an employee of the Power Development Department said perhaps the administration wanted to show to the all-party delegation that protests have subsided and hence the curfew was not lifted. The delegation reached here at 9.30 am and then headed to Raj Bhawan.

Srinagar, August 9
Kashmir-based journalists, while condemning the recent attacks on mediapersons by the police, have termed these as an attack on the freedom of press.

This was discussed at a meeting of journalists here today. The issues discussed at the meeting included seizure of copies of a vernacular daily Etalaat today, the recent firing incident at Greater Kashmir and at the Kashmir Uzma office in Jammu, and threats to the staff of Rising Kashmir.

The mediapersons demanded that the chief secretary and the DGP should come before the media and present a complete picture of the happenings in the state. They said this would help in bringing out the truth before the general public.

The meeting also resolved that despite threats by the government, mediapersons in Kashmir would continue with their reporting and bring out facts before the general public in accordance with their professional commitment.

The journalists also condemned the treatment meted out to the press fraternity of Kashmir during the past few months in the form of assaults, threats or intimidations and termed this an attempt to suppress the freedom of press.

Srinagar, August 9
The authorities today claimed that 270 trucks and tankers loaded with essential commodities and petroleum products had arrived here from Jammu.

An official spokesman said of these, 38 trucks were loaded with rice, 29 with chicken, 34 with sheep, 6 with flour, 9 with fresh fruit and 82 with other essentials.

Out of 72 tankers which reached Srinagar, 18 were loaded with diesel, 6 with kerosene oil, nine with MS, three with LPG and 36 others.

According to a spokesman of the divisional administration, 58 fruit-laden trucks, 16 vegetable-laden and 28 other commodities-laden trucks departed from Srinagar to Jammu today.

He said another 152 load carriers, including 50 empty tankers, had also left for Jammu from here.