Friday, October 31, 2008

CRPF opens fire, raids homes

61 injured in Friday clashes
Rising Kashmir Nov1, 2008
* Youth hurt in police firing at Rajouri Kadal
* Valley observes half-day strike


Ishfaq Mir

Srinagar, Oct 31: At least 61 persons including four women were injured in clashes between angry youth and cops in Valley, which witnessed half a day strike on Friday.
Srinagar and other parts of the Valley observed complete shutdown after Friday prayers in response to the call given by the Jammu and Kashmir Coordination Committee (JKCC), spearheading the present agitation in Kashmir.
Eyewitnesses said that dozens of youth chanting pro-freedom slogans took to streets in Maisuma and gathered near the JKLF head-office. The acting JKLF chairman, Bashir Ahmad Bhat addressed the protesters and asked them to stay away from the poll process. “We don’t fear arrests because is part and parcel of the struggle. We will continue our peaceful struggle and won’t be cowed down by the tactics being used by the Indian government,” he said.
He, however, cautioned New Delhi that if any harm was done to the our pro-freedom leaders, it will have to repay for it. Raising slogans like ‘Sarkari Jamhuriyat, hai hai’ (Down with the government democracy), Bhat urged the people to follow the JKCC’s progrmame.
The youth later tried to march towards Lal Chowk but were intercepted by police and para-military personnel, who were deployed in strength in the area. They fired tear smoke shells and resorted to baton charge to disperse the agitating youth, who retaliated by hurling stones and bricks towards them. Half a dozen protestors were injured in the clashes.
Meanwhile the shopkeepers of Koker Bazar and adjacent areas of Lal Chowk alleged that CRPF personnel beat scores of shopkeepers and passerby after the clashes.
Police opens fire in Nowhatta
Eyewitnesses said that police and CRPF personnel fired dozens of tear smoke canisters and resorted to aerial firing to disperse angry youth, who were raising pro-freedom and anti-India slogans at Nowhatta after the Friday prayers. The clashes between the angry youth and cops continued for more than an hour during which 18 persons were injured.
The clashes also took place between the protestors and cops at Kadi Kadal, Rajouri Kadal and adjoining areas. The cops had to fired dozens of tear smoke shells to disperse the youth who pelted stones and bricks on them in Rajouri Kadal. As the clashes continued, the cops fired towards the protestors, injuring one Tuaab Ahmad Bhat son of Gulzar Ahmad Bhat of Safa-Kadal. He was shifted to hospital, where doctors operated on him and removed the bullet.
A woman identified as Nusrat daughter of Ghulam Qadir of Rajouri Kadal was injured in police action at Kadi-Kadal. She has been hospitalized.
A police spokesman while confirming the police firing said that 12 CRPF and 3 police personnel were injured in the stone pelting by the youth in Rajouri Kadal area.
CRPF goes berserk in Zanpa Kadal
Residents of Zanpa Kadal, Chattabal area alleged the para-military CRPF personnel barged into their houses and beat up the inmates including women and children. They also alleged that the CRPF men ransacked the household items and desecrated a local mosque.
“CRPF personnel beat up everyone, who came their way. Even women and children were not spared. Angry youth and CRPF personnel clashed for more than two hours and after failing to arrest any of the protestors, the cops barged into the residential houses and beat the inmates. CRPF men desecrated a mosque on the pretext that they were searching for those youth who pelted stones over them,” said the residents.
As the news about ‘highhandedness’ of troops spread, people in hundreds came out on roads and staged a massive demonstration and para-military personnel. They were demanding stern action against the CRPF personnel.
Reports from South Kashmir’s Islamabad district also said that the CRPF personnel barged into residential houses and beat the inmates.
Clashes in North, South
Eyewitnesses said that police and CRPF men fired tear smoke canisters and resorted to heavy baton charge to disperse the peaceful protesters amidst chanting of pro-freedom and pro-Islamic slogans. The protestors retaliated and the clashes continued for nearly an hour during which 10 persons, mostly protestors were injured. The condition of one Bilal Ahmad who received seven stitches after being severely beaten by the cops was stated to be critical.
After the clashes, additional police and CRPF personnel were deployed in the area to prevent people from taking to roads.
Meanwhile, 13 persons were injured in apple town Sopore when clashes broke out between people and CRPF men.
Reports said that people took out a protest rally from Jamia Masjid to Main Chowk Sopore. As they reached the Main Chowk Sopore, CRPF men intercepted them and tried to stop the protesters. This angered the youth, who pelted stones on them. The cops retaliated and in the ensuing clashes during which many tear smoke shells were fired towards the protestors, at least 13 persons were injured.
Later police arrested Hurriyat (G) leader, Abdul Gani Bhat of Babaraza Sopore.

Home of Kashmir High Court Bar Association President raided

Bar president’s house raided
Rising Kashmir Nov 1, 2008
Lawyers take out protest rally

Rising Kashmir News
Srinagar, Oct 31: Police and CRPF men Friday raided the Barzulla residence of Kashmir High Court Bar Association President Mian Abdul Qayoom.
As the news spread, the lawyers stayed away from the court proceedings for nearly two hours. However, the work resumed after Qayoom reached the High Court and addressed the lawyers.
The strength of police and paramilitary personnel was increased in Lower Court premises to prevent the lawyers from taking to roads and staging demonstrations. However, the lawyers broke free and took out a procession from Lower court premises to Lal Chowk in Srinagar. Carrying placards and banners, the lawyers condemned the clampdown on separatist leaders and large scale arrests.
Addressing the lawyers from historic Ganta Ghar, Qayoom drew world attention towards the excesses being committed by Indian soldiers on hapless Kashmir. “People participating in freedom marches are being arrested and harassed and this is being done to prevent people from participating in such marches. The Kashmiris won’t be cowed down by such measures and will continue their peaceful struggle till Kashmir issue is resolved as per their wishes and aspirations,” he added.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

3 yrs on, ‘framed’ KU student languishing in jail without trial

Rising Kashmir Oct 30, 2008
Enraged mother seeks VC’s intervention
Sofi Imtiyaz
Ganderbal, Oct 28:
Arrested three years back for alleged involvement in October 29, 2005 Delhi blasts, Muhammad Rafiq Shah of Shuhama, Alasteng is languishing in Tihar jail without trial.
Delhi police had arrested Shah on the intervening night of October 21and 22, 2005 at 3 AM on charges of carrying out blasts in New Delhi’s Govindpuri area.
"Rafiq was pursuing post graduate studies in Islamic Studies under roll no 8566 and had passed three semesters. Now he was preparing for the final semester, but his dream of completing the PG was shattered when he was arrested,” his father Muhammad Yaseen said.
"For two months, we knew nothing about his whereabouts. Later, when we were informed on phone that Rafiq has been detained in Tihar jail in connection with October 29, 2005 Delhi blasts, we were shocked and tried every possible means for his release, but to no avail. Despite protests by Kashmir University students and wide coverage by media, no progress has been made in the case,” he said.
Yaseen accused Delhi police for framing his lone son.
Giving further details of the case, Yaseen said that police arrested four Bangladeshi militants and a Deoband cleric on April 07, 2006 who reportedly took the responsibility of the blasts.
“Even the mastermind behind the blasts Jalal-ud-din alias Babu Bai confessed of being involved in the attacks when he was arrested soon after the Bangladeshi national's arrest,” he said.
Apparently, the then Delhi Police chief, KK Paul, had given Rafiq a clean chit. But its Special Cell claimed he was guilty.
The family struggles to make the two ends meet. Rafiq being the only son of his parents, the family, including his two sisters, is run on his father's pension with no other source of income.
His mother has sold all her ornaments to visit his son in jail.
"The day the blasts took place in New Delhi, Rafiq was in the University. Even the then Vice Chancellor Abdul Wahid has confirmed it," Raifq's mother said.
Giving emotional vent to her pent-up frustration over the “indifferent” attitude of Kashmir University authorities, she threatened to set the varsity on fire if it fails to get his son released.
"I vehemently appeal to the vice chancellor to intervene in the matter or otherwise face dire consequences," she said with anger and tears in her eyes.
“If VC has the powers, then why not use them for pursuing the release of an innocent student of his university,” she added.
"I am very much tired now. I have lost almost all hopes particularly with media. What can you do by highlighting this issue through your newspaper? We have tested all such means. No one comes to our rescue,” she said with a sigh, adding "if any minister passes through our road, I will set him and his vehicle on fire.”
Anger and frustration is evident on the faces of Rafiq's friends also, who still don’t seem to have come in terms with their companion’s detention.
"He is innocent. He was present in the varsity when the blasts occurred in Delhi. We appeal vice chancellor of Kashmir University, Prof Riyaz Punjabi and Delhi administration to take serious cognizance of the issue so that justice prevails. ", said one of the colleagues of Rafiq.
When contacted, Prof Punjabi wished not to comment on the case.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

CRPF opens fire in Varmul, killing one - protests against arrests and paramilitary violence

VARMUL ON BOIL


Student killed in police firing, curfew clamped
Greater Kashmir Oct 27



Varmul, Oct 25: A student was killed and eight others were injured, four of them critically, when police and paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force opened fire to disperse demonstrators in this north Kashmir town on Sunday, after which the authorities clamped an indefinite curfew in the area.
Witnesses told Greater Kashmir thousands of people took to streets for the second consecutive day today in protest against the arrest of six youth and alleged ransacking of houses in the old town. However, policemen and paramilitary troopers, who had been deployed in strength, resorted to baton charge, fired tear smoke canisters, and later opened fire, killing a student, Irfan Ahmad Akhoon (20), son of Muhammad Amin Akhoon of Jalal Sahib, and injuring eight others.
Pleading anonymity, a friend of the deceased said he and the victim were watching the protest from a distance near the Cement Bridge without being a part of it. “Suddenly, Irfan fell down as a bullet hit Irfan in his lower abdomen,” he said, adding, “I raised an alarm and rushed him to hospital where doctors declared him brought dead.”
The witnesses said that out of the eight injured, four persons, who sustained bullet injuries, were rushed to Srinagar in a critical condition.
Bashir Ahmad, a local, who had joined the protests, said they were peacefully demonstrating against the “high handedness” of police and CRPF and were demanding action against the erring troopers and policemen. “Police and CRPF directly fired at the protestors,” he added.
As the word about Irfan’s killing spread, thousands of people from the town and adjoining areas, shouting pro-freedom and anti-police slogans, took to streets to give vent to their ire. Reinforcements were rushed to the area and authorities clamped curfew in the entire township.
When contacted, the deputy inspector general of police, Abdul Gani, admitted that one youth had been killed after a bullet hit him. “We have ordered an inquiry into the incident. We would probe the circumstances in which the security forces opened fire on the protestors,” he said, adding that indefinite curfew had been clamped on the town.
Police version
Meanwhile, a police spokesman in a statement said, “A violent mob tried to overpower a small contingent of deployment near Cement Bridge in Varmul which resulted in a scuffle.”
Quoting district police authorities, the spokesman said, “A frenzied mob tried to move towards the main town with the intention to disrupt the normal life. The mob resorted to violent activities by throwing stones and sloganeering and put some innocent people in front. The mob which had swelled in numbers tried to overpower a small contingent of deployment in Cement Bridge area, the deployment had to resort to firing in which one person Irfan Amin Akhoon son of Muhammad Amin of Jalal Sahib was killed, while another person Bilal Ahmad Sofi son of Muhammad Shaban of Jalal Sahib was injured. He has been shifted to SKIMS, Srinagar, where he is under treatment and his condition is stable.”
The spokesman said, “Two more persons were also injured but not by bullets. Muhammad Rafiq son of Muhammad Sultan Kanjwal of Old Town was injured in a collision with a vehicle while the other one Irshad Ahmad son of Ghulam Nabi of Old Town sustained minor injuries.”

LA Times story about Malik Sajjad,GKCartoonist






Malik Sajad, a talented 20-year-old who has been drawing a daily editorial cartoon for the Greater Kashmir newspaper since he was 15, is about to publish a graphic novel describing his encounter with an elderly man whose son was allegedly killed and subsequently falsely identified as a terrorist by the Indian army.

Such violence and abuse was the reality with which Sajad was raised.

"It's part of me, my art," said the reedy, bespectacled youth. "You see landscapes; you draw landscapes. I saw guns; I draw guns. This is part of my surroundings. It's a normal part of my life."

His novel also recounts a run-in he had two years ago with local security forces that had stopped him at a checkpoint -- a typical experience for young Kashmiri men -- as he made his way home from work one evening. The police refused to believe he was a cartoonist, despite his company ID card, until he whipped out a pen and drew a caricature of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on his hand.

read more

Kashmiri cartoonist's ordeal in Delhi

Back home, I feel reborn
Greater Kashmir Sept 28

The GK Cartoonist Malik Sajad Narrates The Experience Of Being A Kashmiri At A Wrong Time In New Delhi.

I arrived home from Delhi yesterday. I took a deep breath when I laid eyes on the landscapes of the valley. My mother was waiting for me at home. Her face was pale and her eyes were full of tears. My father held me for a long time as if I were away for years. My brothers gathered around me as if my return was unexpected. My mother asked me in a weak voice, “Were you okay in Delhi?” “Yes,” I nodded, “My exhibition had a huge response. Everyone praised my cartoons and I enjoyed the trip.”
They looked worried and I sought the reason for their worry.” They replied, “Sajad, some policemen in civilian clothes came here to verify some information about you while you were in Delhi. You didn’t call us for four days. We thought something bad has happened to you. We were all crying.” I was surprised. My family already knew what I had tried to keep secret for the sake of my mother’s health. At home I felt safe again, and I narrate to them the ordeal I went through in New Delhi for being a Kashmiri.
I was invited by the Public Service Broadcasting Trust to create an installation art in the OPEN FRAMES, EXPLORING CONFLICT, an international film festival about peace and conflict held at the India Habitat Centre. The festival began on the 12 September and lasted eight days. My installation titled “Terrorism of Peace” featured my cartoons hanging from rolls of razor wire with some alcohol bottles hanging on the wire, exactly the same way as found around bunkers of troopers on the streets of Srinagar. I put some mud and stones on the shiny green marble floor of the Stein Auditorium to give the installation the real feel of Kashmir.
On Saturday afternoon, the second day of the festival, I drew a cartoon in my hotel room for my Sunday Slice column. I took a picture of it with my digital camera and headed to a cybercafé about 150 meters from the habitat centre to mail it to Greater Kashmir. After I mailed the cartoon I visited the Greater Kashmir website and my cartoon website. Meanwhile, I heard another browser seated on a nearby computer chatting over the phone about the serial blasts at Connaught Place and Greater Kailash I. Soon everyone in the café joined in on a discussion about terrorism and the blasts. While I was watching news videos on Greater Kashmir’s website, the owner of the café peered over my shoulders to glimpse what I was looking at. Soon the owner and others started to talk about me in hushed voices. “He is Kashmiri! We should check his identity!” they whispered. The owner approached me and asked me for my passport in a soft voice. I gave him my identity card and told him that I don’t have my passport with me. He took it and xeroxed it. He studied my identity card for a long time. He asked me where I was staying in Delhi and I gave him the address of the Habitat Centre. He asked me which websites I had visited. I listed them for him. I could hear the customers saying “He is looking at websites from Kashmir!” Then someone said loudly “Why should we take responsibility for this boy. He could be anything! Just call the police and let them verify who he is!” I started to panic. “I am Kashmiri,” I thought “No one will listen to me.”
There was a PCO in the café. They called the police and told them that there is a Kashmiri in the café and that they should verify my identity. I asked the café owner to call the habitat centre to check my identity as

well. They refused. I pleaded with them to just call the centre, but they wouldn’t. Two fat police constables and a woman inspector wearing two stars arrived within five minutes, wearing a we-have-got-the-culprit look. Her face frightened me. Her hair was jet black and short like a boy’s hair cut. Her eyes were stiff like black moles on her face. She held a very fine stick in her hand. She entered the café shouting “Who is the guy? Who is the guy?” Before anyone pointed at me I raised my hand with my I card, shouting back, “Madam it is me, it is me! Here is my I card!”
She didn’t look at the card, but slid it into her pocket, and ordered a constable to search into my bag. They studied my camera as if it were a bomb. They told me to pack everything in the backpack. I quickly managed to eject the memory card out of my camera and slip it in my pocket, since my photographs were the only proof of my installation at the habitat centre. Before they confiscate my mobile I memorized the number of the director of the film festival. The inspector shouted at me “Salay bahar chalo!” I shook with fear. I didn’t know what to do. No one would listen to me. The constables literally dragged me out of the cafe. Someone shouted “We should place him in the bus.” I was shocked and cried, “Please listen to me! Please listen to me!” Almost two hundred people gathered on the road to see the “terrorist”--Me! The crowd was so big that it created a traffic jam. I shouted in the air “Somebody please go to the habitat centre and tell them the artist whose installation is there has been arrested!”
As they were dragging me to the police station, the inspector shouted at me “You Kashmiri bastard! Why do you people have problem with being part of India? Sala…!” At the police station, they seated me on a bench with another person they had arrested. He had dried brown blood all over his face. His eyes were sharp and red. It was obvious he was drunk. I pleaded, “Please listen to me. I am a cartoonist in Kashmir! I am not a terrorist! I am innocent!” They ignored me and listened to their wireless radios. They continued to hurl abuses at me. Another woman inspector wearing civilian clothes with a wireless radio in her hand shouted at me “You bastard, you speak such nice Hindi! Why do you have a problem with being part of India!” I replied, trying to be as transparent as possible, “Madam, I am speaking Urdu actually, which sounds like Hindi.”
The inspector woman who dragged me to police station began to record the evidence:
1: He was looking at the website with diagrams of guns on it. (This was her definition for my cartoon website kashmirblackandwhite.com!)
2: He was searching for information about the Kashmir conflict. (I was reading some articles to prepare for my talk about the “Dialoguing peace in Kashmir” at the Stein Auditorium on 17 September.)
3: He had a camera with a memory card in it. (Obviously my camera is a Canon digital SLR and it can’t be without a memory card.)
I was crying. I couldn’t feel my fingers and feet. I felt like I had been electrocuted. The incandescent lights in the police station were shining brightly, but it seemed to me very dark.
I had no hope now. I thought of running away from the police station. “The habitat centre is only 50 meters away,” I thought. “Even if they shoot me I would be injured, but I can prove my innocence.”
But I didn’t want to give them any chance. I thought my life was over. “If there is no hope of life, I need to accept the reality,” I said to myself. But somehow this thought actually gave me strength. “I am not going to be scared of them any more,” I thought “They are not going to listen to me any way.” I stood up and said to them sternly, “Come kill me! Shoot me! Do whatever you want, but keep in mind that I am a guest here and my work is being displayed in the Stein Auditorium! Hang me or label me a terrorist! I am going to sit here silently now!” Then they finally called the Coordinator for PSBT. The number was busy. I asked her “Madam, can’t you come with me to the Habitat Centre to check whether I am speaking truth or not? It is only 50 meters away.” Finally, after fifteen minutes, she relented and agreed to take me to the Habitat Centre. They held me by the collar as we walked to the centre. Once we entered the gate no 3 of habitat center, she continued to curse Kashmiris. At this point however, I was in the habitat centre, so I shot back, “Mind your language!” My voice was firm and she became quiet. When she saw my work in the auditorium, she started shouting “You Kashmiris have a problem!” I wasn’t in their grasp anymore, so I picked up a stone lying in the mud of my installation and started to smash my installation. The sound of the glass frames breaking echoed throughout the auditorium. Those watching a film inside the auditorium came outside to see what had happened. The policewoman ran away.
I called GK to inform them what had happened, but the Habitat Centre manger instructed me to not leave the premises and not to call from my phone, or email, for a few days. After three days I called home and the GK office. The PBST issued a letter to the security agencies that I am their guest and they are responsible for my accommodation and tickets. I thank God that I was a guest of the habitat centre and not alone as a cartoonist for GK. Otherwise, the story of another missing Kashmiri would have been all over the news here. I watched the news channel that night to see if they would flash my name….

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Leaders arrested

Malik, Zaffar arrested ahead of Lal Chowk march
October 6 Greater Kashmir

Mirwaiz, Sajad put under house arrest, Geelani stable

GK NEWS NETWORK

Srinagar, Oct 5: Ahead of Lal Chowk march, police arrested the chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Muhammad Yasin Malik and senior Hurriyat(M) leader Zaffar Akbar Bhat, while many pro-freedom leaders, including Hurriyat (M) chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Peoples Conference chairman Sajad Gani Lone, were put under house arrest since Saturday evening.
A JKLF spokesman said a policemen and paramilitary CRPF troopers raided the Maisuma residence of Malik last night after he visited the historic Lal Chowk yesterday to see the arrangements for Monday’s Lal chowk chalo march.
The spokesman said Malik, who was heading the committees formed by the Coordination Committee (CC), spearheading the present agitation in the Kashmir valley, for the march was taken to an unknown destination.
The vice chairman of the front advocate Bashir Ahmed Bhat strongly condemned the arrest of Malik and termed it undemocratic .
This was for the second time police arrested Malik on Lal Chowk march issue. On August 25, when the CC had appealed the people to reach Lal Chowk, Malik was arrested after he violated the curfew restriction and tried to march towards Lal Chowk.
He and other senior pro-freedom leaders including chairmen on both Hurriyat factions Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq were released after about one week.
Police on Sunday arrested senior Hurriyat (M) leader Zaffar Akbar Bhat from city outskirts here. Hurriyat insiders said that Bhat was arrested from Natipora when he was on way to his residence to Bagh-e-Mehtab. Bhat was taken to an unknown destination.
Meanwhile top ranking Hurriyat (M) leaders, including the chairman of the conglomerate Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, were put under house arrest on Sunday.
Media advisor to Hurriyat, Shahid-ul-Islam told Greater Kashmir that Mirwaiz, Aga Syed Hassan Al Mousvi, Bilal Gani Lone, Moulana Abbas Ansari and Professor Abdul Gani Bhat were placed under house arrest this morning.
Islam termed their arrest as “undemocratic” and described the clamping of curfew ahead of Lal Chowk march as “unjustified.”
Chairman of Peoples Conference Sajad Gani Lone was also put under house arrest on Sunday.
A spokesman of the party said, “Policemen and paramilitary CRPF troopers cordoned off Sajad’s residence at Rawalpora this morning and informed him that he was under house arrest.”
A spokesman of JKLF (R) said that police raided the houses of the chief spokesman of the front Rasik Khurshid and district president of the front for Kupwara Abdur Rasheed Bhat. “Police and troopers are harassing the front activists throughout the Valley,” the spokesman alleged.
Geelani stable
Condition of the Hurriyat (G ) chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who was shifted to SK Institute of Medical Sciences, Saturday night, was stated to be stable on Sunday.
Family members of the veteran pro-freedom leader told Greater Kashmir, “ Doctors have described his condition as stable.”
Geelani was shifted to SKIMS after he complained about severe chest pain.

Indefinite curfew imposed in Kashmir

Indefinite curfew imposed in Kashmir
Greater Kashmir Oct 6

GK NEWS NETWORK

Srinagar, Oct 5: All major towns and tehsils in the Kashmir valley were brought under indefinite curfew early today in wake of 'Lal Chowk Chalo' call for Monday by the Coordination Committee.
Official sources said curfew was imposed from 0430 hrs in the morning to prevent people from participating in the 'Lal Chowk Chalo' march called by the Coordination Committee (CC), spearheading the present movement in the valley. The CC is demanding, among other things, opening of all cross-Line of Control(LoC) roads for trade and free movement, release of all detenues and revocation of Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), which provides impunity to the troopers operating in Jammu and Kashmir.
There was no report of any violation of curfew in the Valley, including Srinagar city. “The situation was by and large peaceful in all parts of the Valley and no violation was reported till late in the evening,” a police spokesman said.
However, reports said that a minor clash between the youth and policemen broke out at Nowahata in old city this morning. “The youth were dispersed and situation was brought under control within few minutes,” official sources said.
Pro-freedom demonstration in Varmul
Scores of youth defied curfew at old town Varmul in north Kashmir on Sunday and staged a pro-freedom demonstration.
Witnesses told Greater Kashmir youth raising pro-freedom slogans marched through the bye lanes of the old town this afternoon. However after the march protesters dispersed off peacefully.
Minor clash in Kulgam
Reports said that hundreds of youth tried taking out a pro-freedom demonstration at Kulgam in south Kashmir on Sunday morning. “Policemen and troopers intercepted the protesters and resorted to baton charge to disperse them. Protesters were dispersed and no one was injured in the police action,” official sources said.
Lal Chowk sealed
The historic Lal Chowk was sealed last night from all the sides. Besides, the CRPF and policemen had also been deployed in strength in the civil lines to prevent any gathering there, official sources said.
All the routes leading to Lal Chwok were sealed. Tin sheets and barbed wire were put around Ganta Ghar (Clock tower).
Gulmarg under curfew
Law enforcing agencies imposed curfew strictly in famous health resort of Gulmarg on Sunday. Reports said that policemen and troopers asked the shopkeepers not to open their shops and the tourists who were present in the health resort were directed to remain inside the hotels, and the huts they were putting up in. “This is for the first time that curfew had been enforced so strictly in Gulmarg,” a caller from the health resort told Greater Kashmir over phone.
He said that tourists present in Gulmarg were facing severe hardships due to curfew.