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| Grand curfew foils Lal Chowk march | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
SRINAGAR, Oct 6: Putting entire Kashmir Valley under an indefinite grand curfew, the Governor’s administration today prevented the separatists to take out their much talked about and keenly awaited “Lal Chowk march”.
Kashmir remained under curfew for the second consecutive day today with police and paramilitary forces deployed heavily in the Valley to thwart any attempt by separatists to hold a protest march to Lal Chowk here. The government, however, announced late in the evening that there will be no curfew tomorrow 5 AM onwards.
Barring minor incidents of slogan shouting by groups of people that gathered in old Baramulla town late last night, the situation in the entire Valley was peaceful and there was been no report of any violent incident.
Some of the local newspapers failed to hit the stands as publishers decided not to print them accusing the government of not providing enough curfew passes to their staff, a charge denied by the government.
A virtual siege was laid around Lal Chowk as a large posse of gun-toting security personnel took up position in and around the area. All entry and exit points in Srinagar city have been sealed.
There were some sporadic protests when the paramilitary forces refused to entertain curfew passes. However, the issue was resolved later.
The new anti-riot vehicles, procured by the Jammu and Kashmir Police recently, were positioned at strategic locations, specially those which had witnessed violence earlier.
"Due to indefinite curfew imposed by the authorities in Srinagar and elsewhere in Kashmir and the government's failure to provide adequate number of curfew passes to our staff, distributors and hawkers, the print edition of Greater Kashmir and Kashmir Uzma will not hit the stands on Monday," the Greater Kashmir said in a statement.
However, a government spokesman said enough passes had been provided to all newspapers and in some cases vehicles passes have also issued to ferry their staff members.
A private television channel -- Sen TV-- was banned for allegedly inciting people to disturb public peace and tranquility.
The curfew comes in the wake of Lal Chowk Chalo march call given by Coordination Committee, a separatist conglomerate, to press for its demands which include opening of Line of Control (LoC) roads for trade, release of all detainees and revocation of Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA).
A number of separatist leaders including JKLF leader Yaseen Malik were put under preventive custody. Hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani was shifted to a hospital after he complained of pain in lower abdomen.
Among those placed under house arrest were Chairman of moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, Jamiat-e-Ahl-e-Hadith chief Maulana Showkat besides senior separatist leaders Abdul Gani Bhat, Bilal Lone and Sajjad Lone.
Police had launched a manhunt for Nayeem Khan, a separatist leader. A number of separatist leaders -- Shabir Shah, Masarat Alam and Asiya Andrabi -- have been arrested earlier. |
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