Despite shutdown, more movement on Valley roads

SRINAGAR: Normal life continued to remain paralysed due to shutdown and counter restrictions across the Kashmir valley on day 137 of the current unrest today even as there has been an increased pedestrian and vehicular movement on the roads giving a semblance of normalcy.

A woman buys a ‘kangri’ from a vendor in Srinagar. Tribune Photo: Yawar Kabli

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, November 22

Normal life continued to remain paralysed due to shutdown and counter restrictions across the Kashmir valley on day 137 of the current unrest today even as there has been an increased pedestrian and vehicular movement on the roads giving a semblance of normalcy.

The overall situation remained peaceful and no untoward incident was reported from any part of the Valley, officials here said. However, there were stray incidents of stone-throwing in some areas of the Valley where protesting youth indulged in stone-throwing to enforce the shutdown.

The shutdown without any “relaxations” continued for the second consecutive day today after two full days of normal life activities on Saturday and Sunday as per the protest calendar issued jointly by separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik.

Shops and business establishments were closed while footpath vendors lined up along the TRC-Lal Chowk-Batamaloo road, the main axis in the Civil Lines area of the city. A good number of people, most of them came in private vehicles, were seen shopping at these places for woollens, essential commodities and other merchandise. A heavy rush of shoppers continued for the whole day at different market places, including Hari Singh High Street (HSHS) here.

Private vehicles and auto-rickshaws also moved normally on the roads in Srinagar and major towns of the Valley. However, there was a thin movement of public transport buses on several routes, while the movement of mini buses on some routes was observed in the Civil Line areas of the city.

With an improvement in the overall situation and an increased movement on the roads, the attendance of government employees has been near normal during the past few weeks. The educational institutions have suffered the most as these remained closed since the trouble started early in July this year. The trouble started following the killing of militant commander Burhan Wani along with two of his accomplices in an encounter with security forces in south Kashmir on July 8. It triggered the current unrest, which has been the longest ever spell of shutdown in the trouble-torn Kashmir. At least 89 persons, including two J&K Police men, have been killed and over 12,000 others injured in the clashes between protesters and police forces so far.