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| Valley on boil over CBI report on Shopian, dozens injured | | |
AHMED ALI FAYYAZ
SRINAGAR, Dec 15: Majlis-e-Mashawarat Shopian (MMS) call for total shutdown in Valley, that had been supported by Syed Ali Shah Geelani-led faction of the Hurriyat Conference and High Court Bar Association, evoked a lukewarm response in Kashmir today as reports of partial bandh poured in from several localities but traffic and shops were found operational in many other localities. Contrary to a many speculations and apprehensions of violence in the corridors of power, there was no major incident even as thin groups of demonstrators clashed with Police at a few places in the capital city. MMS had given the call for shutdown in protest against CBI’s clean chit to four J&K Police officials and instead framing nearly a dozen doctors and lawyers in a criminal matter of conspiracy and fabricating evidences.
Situation today was decidedly different from what it was in the aftermath of the recovery of the dead bodies of 17-year-old Aasiya Jan and 25-year-old Neelofar Jan in the month of June this year. Amid eight days of continuous shutdown all over the Valley and 47 days of continued shutdown in Shopian, Kashmir had witnessed largescale violence, including half-a-dozen fatal casualties as thick demonstrations had clashed with Police and paramilitary forces in almost all districts.
Feeling little tension, authorities today continued to conduct annual examinations as per their schedule throughout the Valley. While as transport and business establishments operated normally in Ganderbal, Kupwara and half of all other districts, there was little impact of the shutdown in uptown localities in the capital city. As a precautionary measure, Police did not allow most of the separatist leaders to budge an inch out of their residences.
Reports said that thousands of devotees visited Hazratbal on occasion of the annual Urs of Chahar Yaar.
Shutdown was near-total in most of the downtown localities where demonstrators clashed with Police at eight different places. Reports said that they also pelted stones on the open shops and the vehicles in movement, causing damage to at least half-a-dozen of them. Preliminary reports said that over a dozen demonstrators and Police personnel sustained injuries in such clashes. Police used tearsmoke and baton charge to disperse the crowds.
Reports of some clashes between Police and demonstrators were also received from Pulwama, Sopore and Baramulla towns. According to these reports, there was total shutdown in Shopian but the number of demonstrators was restricted to scores and hundreds. Reports said that crowds shouted slogans against MMS itself with the allegation that it had failed to take the Shopian movement to its logical conclusion. In other demonstrations, people shouted slogans against CBI, Police, armed forces and Omar Abdullah government.
Meanwhile, Mehbooba Mufti’s PDP, both factions of the separatist Hurriyat Conference, JLKF of Mohammad Yasin Malik, High Court Bar Association, MMS and Pakistan-based alliance of Kashmirti militants, United Jihad Council, have joined hands to discredit CBI’s report and dismiss it as an act of “cover up”. Geelani and Mehbooba called news conferences with nearly identical statements in which they charged CBI with having done injustice to the Shopian victims and restricted itself as a tool to protect the Indian national interest.
As Mehbooba paid “Salam” to Geelani for continuing his struggle, Geelani referred to her as “Beti” but asked her to join the separatist ranks “if you are really convinced that we are fighting for a just and genuine cause”. With the exception of the two ruling parties---NC and Congress---nearly all political parties issued statements in condemnation of the CBI report on Shopian. Mehbooba claimed that men in uniform were involved in committing rape and murder on the two women and CBI had done nothing to unravel the “truth”. |
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