news details |
|
|
| Separatists thrive on derailing peace in Kashmir | | | Separatists thrive on the slogans of atrocities that give them an opportunity to call for shutdown and appeal to people to hold protest rallies. And the authorities have no other alternative but to impose restrictions in parts of the summer capital of the state or during the call for Anantnag Chalo. This is what has been happening in Kashmir day in and day out. Imposition of restrictions for maintaining law and order has become a regular feature of the Kashmir valley's where the tourist season has begun with no sight of flow of tourists. Hoteliers, houseboat owners and owners of guest houses await arrival of tourists as failure in the arrival of tourists to the valley could affect several thousand people, who are directly attached to the tourist traffic. How can home and foreign tourists visit Kashmir when there is killing of militants followed by huge protest rallies in which protesters clash with the security forces resulting in deaths and injuries to civilians? Certainly tourists want free atmosphere, free from violence which is not possible in Kashmir these days.
And see the fate of Sundays when the tourists have a chance to visit some famous tourist resorts they cannot move freely when the authorities have imposed restrictions in parts of Srinagar as a precautionary measure to maintain law and order in view of a strike called by separatists over the killing of militants during an encounter and the death of a civilian in a clash here. Restrictions under Section 144 of the CrPc have been imposed in seven police station areas of the city here, a police have said. Strict curbs are invariably imposed in the police station areas of Nowhatta, Rainawari, Safakadal, MR Gunj and Khanyar, while partial restrictions were in force in the Maisuma and Kralkhud areas. The curbs were put in place as a precautionary measure to maintain law and order, the official said. The separatists, under the banner of Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL), had called for a complete shutdown today to protest the killing of three militants in a gunfight with security forces, and a civilian during clashes between protestors and law enforcing agencies near the encounter site in the Chattabal area of the city. The JRL, comprising Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik, appealed to people to observe complete shutdown against the killings. Shops, fuel stations and other business establishments remain shut in the rest of the city while public transport was off the roads. Reports of shutdown are received from other district headquarters of the valley.
And those who depend on tourist season lament their losses as hardly tourists want to either extend their stay in Kashmir, which is a conflict zone, or simply canel their reservations. This way those connected with tourism have to bank on pilgrim tourist traffic. In the sense that more than 80 lakh pilgrims visit Mata Vaishno Devi and three to six lakhs visit the holy cave of Amarnath in east Kashmir. Right from the rise of Pakistan sponsored militancy there is marked fall in the tourist arrival in Kashmir and when tourists cannot come to Srinagar how can they visit rich tourist resorts like Gulmarg, Pahalgam, Kokernag, and the Dal and Nigin lakes? They cannot visit these resorts in central and south Kashmir which has, during the last four years has become a hotbed of militancy. Regular encounters take place between militants and security forces and hence for tourists to move freely to Pahalgam and other resorts is impossible. And if people have to bank on militancy it is the result of poverty because those fed up with bleak tourist arrivals bank on money for hurling bombs and for attacking security convoys and camps. This could be one of the reasons for the educated youth to get themselves recruited in militant groups where they get sizeable amount of money for attacking security convoys and camps. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
