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| Central leadership worried over escalating turmoil in Jammu | | | Gareeb Dass
Jammu | Aug 6
The chances for immediate restoration of peace to Jammu seem to have become bleak as peoples'tempers keep on sizzling.Day in and day out people,including women and children,continue to defy curfew restrictions while taking to the streets for airing their anger against the revocation of the land order.Both the state and the central authorities besides political leaders of various hues in the Jammu region are a worried lot.As the Jammuites have built maximum pressure for seeking restoration of land to the Shrine Board those in Kashmir have revived their agitation,in one form or the other,to prevent the Government from yielding to the pressure from Jammu.
As part of their plan to demonstrate that Kashmir will be again on fire agitators clashed with the police in various localities in Srinagar during the last two days in which one youth was killed and several,including policemen,were injured.Their anger seems to be more against what they call economic blockade to the valley by agitators in Jammu and their sympathisers in Punjab who have prevented Srinagar bound trucks,carrying essential commodities from moving on the highway.They seem to have ignored the role the Army,police and paramilitary forces have played to ensuring that those trucks that had been stranded on the highway because of disruption caused by protesters were able to reach Srinagar.They seem to have lost sight of the problem being faced by several million people in the Jammu region for whom essential commodities,including milk,vegetables,have not been available for the last 35 days of Bandh and curfew restrictions.Whatever stocks the retailers had stand exhausted.
Though belated the centre has started giving thought to the situation in Jammu and Kashmir on a priority basis.Congress leaders from the state have been confabulating with powers that be in Delhi for exploring some via media for resolving the crisis which seems to have no immediate solution.This is so because the Amarnath land row has become more complicated than the Kashmir issue as the Jammuites want the land to be restored to the Board while those in Kashmir continue to oppose it with all the strength they have.
Series of meetings have taken place between congress leaders from Jammu and Kashmir and senior functionaries of the centre,including the External Affairs Minister,Pranabh Mukherjee,and Sonia Gandhi during the last two days for evolving some solution..Sonia Gandhi had been initially misled by some political leaders that the agitation and violence were confined to Jammu city only.But the events that took place during the last four days belied their claim when agitators resorted to violence in various rural belts of the Jammu region.Emphasis was being given on the reconstitution of the Shrine Board to the extent that Governor Vohra stopped heading it.Four members from the Jammu region and three Kashmiri Pandits were to be appointed as members of the Board and all the state agencies would be asked to implement whatever decision the reconstituted Board took.Political analysts are of the opinion that next 10 days are crucial and indications are that the situation may show signs of improvement after the annual yatra concluded on August 16. |
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