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| J&K taken on violent yatra, 2 killed, 60 injured | | | Early Times Reporter
Jammu | June 24
WHO IS DOING WHAT?
• Separatists, others are taking to streets in Srinagar to prost land transfer
• Police, paramilitary forces retaliating with baton, gun fire to quell protests
• PDP is now accusing ‘some elements’ in state establishment for situation
• BJP is blocking supply of essential commodities to Kashmir Valley
• Government looking at situation as mute spectator
• Secular forces in J&K are allowing communal elements to have their say
• Mufti has threatened to withdraw support if land allotment not cancelled
Communal in approach as it already has been, the controversy revolving around the transfer of land to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board today assumed a regional polarization as several activists led by the Bhartiya Janta Party lodged a symbolic protest on the National Highway seeking to block the supply of essential commodities to Kashmir Valley.
Meanwhile, in Srinagar the pitched battle between protestors and the security forces continued for third consecutive day with the death toll in police firing mounting to two.
On the political front while Peoples Democratic Party today stepped ahead of the Raj Bhawan bashing to accuse “some elements” in the state government for taking situation back to “square one”, the so called third front said that the Kashmiris were never against the Yatra.
Reports reaching here from Srinagar said that sixty people, including policemen, were injured in the clashes that began Monday evening after protests were called by the separatist Hurriyat Conference party alliance. Scores of people gathered at Nowhatta square in the old quarters of the city, protesting the state government's controversial move to allot forest land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board.
Three people suffered gun-shot wounds when police opened fire to disperse the demonstrators. "According to the information we have two protestors succumbed to injuries in the firing by the Central Reserve Police Force," a local police officer said on condition of anonymity.
"Additional police has been deployed in sensitive areas to prevent further violence," he added. But Srinagar remained tense as clashes continued on Monday and markets closed their shutters in support of the strike called by the Hurriyat Conference.
Angry mobs threw stones, burned tires and stopped traffic at various places in the city.
More than 20 separatist leaders were detained or placed under house arrest in the Muslim-majority state. Hurriyat leaders said the decision to transfer land was part of a conspiracy to settle non-Muslims in the state while local environmentalists claim the transfer threatens the forests.
Meanwhile, the People's Democratic Party, a partner of the ruling Congress party, threatened to pull out of the state government if the order was not revoked by June 30.
In Jammu, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activists blocked the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway asking the government not to cancel the controversial order of land allotment to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB).
The BJP workers, led by their sole member in Jammu and Kashmir legislative assembly Jugal Kishore, raised anti-government slogans and forced the closure Highway at Nagrota. The blockade caused huge traffic snarls as all the vehicles to Katra, the base camp of Vaishno Devi, a Hindu shrine, also pass through the area.
The protestors warned the government against rescinding the controversial order of transfer of forest land to SASB, the board that manages the annual pilgrimage to the Hindu cave shrine of Amarnath in south Kashmir.
Kishore told his supporters: "Any such step would be dealt with severely." He said the government should not interfere in the matter of faith.
Later, the protestors burnt effigies of Peoples Democratic Party patron and former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussain Baig and National Conference patron Farooq Abdullah. These leaders from the Kashmir Valley have been demanding the revocation of the order.
Senior Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader and Minister for Finance, Housing & Urban Development, Tariq Hameed Karra has condemned the killing of a youth in police firing on protesters at Nowhatta yesterday.
Strongly resenting the unwarranted use of force against the unarmed protesters, Karra said some elements in the establishment were hell bent on pushing the situation back to square one as they have developed a vested interest in violence. He said in a situation that has already assumed dangerous dimensions due to strong public resentment over the transfer of land to the SASB, the use of force against the protesters is going to add fuel to the fire. "I am sure some quarters in the establishment want the situation to worsen so that the vicious cycle of violence continues in the State to their advantage," he said and added that the Chief Minister must ensure that no civilian becomes causality of any police-highhandedness.
Karra expressed heartfelt sympathies with the family of the bereaved youth who died in police firing at Nowhatta. He also expressed sympathies with the youth who were injured in police action. |
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