Sarkar alone faithful to Geelani’s civil curfew

Traders, transporters defy shutdown call but Govt shops remain closed in Srinagar

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Nov 11: Continually reeling under separatists-sponsored shutdown and Government-enforced curfew since the middle of June, Kashmir valley today rejected hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s call for “civil curfew”. However, more than 5,000 shops belonging to different departments of the state government remained closed in Civil Lines and few other areas in this capital city.

After two days of normal business on Tuesday and Wednesday, Chairman of the separatist conglomerate Hurriyat Conference (G), Geelani had called upon the Kashmiris to observe “civil curfew” today. The umpteenth call for shutdown, however, evoked insignificant response as shops were seen closed in just Civil Lines and few other localities in Srinagar. Reports said that a number of shops were also shut in the South Kashmir towns of Anantnag, Bijbehara, Kulgam and Pulwama. There was no trade activity in old town of Baramulla.

In Srinagar Civil Lines and some other localities, different departments of the state government have more than 5,000 shops. These stand allotted to local traders and remain religiously closed on every day of the separatist-sponsored shutdown. Government has, of late, initiated measures to break impact of the separatists’ shutdown with threats of cancellation of allotment to the traders. A committee, comprising senior officials and headed by Divisional Commissioner Asgar Hassan Samoon, has begun to make the defaulters accountable on account of their illegal act of selling possession of their allotted premises to unauthorized persons against huge amounts of Pagdi.

However, faced with a huge credibility deficit and disloyal bureaucracy---as admitted by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in an interview to KNS in Jammu today---Government has few takers to its claims. History of the last 22 months of the NC-led coalition government serves as a grim testimony to a sizable gap between the authorities’ saying and doing. For the first time, Omar Abdullah government’s position became awkward last when officers through paid advertisement in local newspapers threatened to dismantle unauthorized structures in Srinagar but within days surrendered before the defaulters.

Fed up with an unending season of five months of shutdown and curfew, people at large have themselves geared up to defy diktats from the separatists. Since last fortnight, traders and transports in Kashmir valley have shown an increasingly cool response to the separatist politicians’ calls for shutdown. Reports from different areas in the Valley suggested lukewarm response to Geelani’s three-day “civil curfew” on November 6^th, 7^th and 8^th. Like on these three days, private and government transport operated normally in Srinagar as well as all other districts in the Valley. Heavy commercial buses were off the road but tippers, trucks, load-carriers and even medium-mode 407-Tata minibuses and small-mode Tata Sumos and three-wheelers operated through the Valley. However, the bandh had substantial impact in few South Kashmir towns.

All government-controlled and private educational institutions operated normally and attendance remained unaffected in most of the government offices. Today’s reports from North Kashmir said that, for the first time this year, even the most disturbed Baramulla town had most of the shops open and transport operational. However, shops remained closed in old town where few stone pelting youth engaged Police in minor clashes. Today’s normality in Baramulla town is widely attributed to the recent arrest of the most wanted stone pelter Javed Ahmed Kaloo alias ‘Meena Kumari’. Quite a number of residents insisted that lukewarm response to the call for “civil curfew” was because of the festivity of Idd-ul-Azha, now just five days away.

In entire Valley, curfew remained officially in force in two-odd villages of Delina and Palhalan, both on Srinagar-Baramulla highway. There were no curfew restrictions even in downtown Srinagar where traders in the morning opened their shops but groups of youth forced them to shut businesses. Consequently, there was partial bandh in half of the capital city.

Peoples’ changing mood is in sharp contrast to the turbulent days of June, July, August and September when Geelani and his hardliner lieutenant, Massarat Alam Bhat, made entire Kashmir valley freeze for weeks together. In the wake of this turbulence, that ran parallel to death of over 100 demonstrators and arsonists in Police and paramilitary action, senior government officials and politicians of all mainstream parties remained confined to their heavily-guarded houses and offices and failed to travel on the streets. For over three months, all major roads and highways remained in total control of the civilian demonstrators and pro-Azadi crowds.

Finally thaw came in September when authorities introduced non-lethal arms and soft means of riot control on one hand but on the other hand got most of the prominent stone pelters and their supports in other institutions arrested. Geelani himself---and now Shabir Shah---was released but almost all others, notably High Court Bar Association chief Advocate Mian Qayoom, advocate Ghulam Nabi Shaheen, Dukhtaraan-e-Millat chief, Asiya Andrabi and Massarat Alam Bhat, were arrested and lodged in different jails. Of the 1200-odd detainees, as many as 950 have been arrested in Srinagar alone. Forty-six of them have been deatined under PSA.

Meanwhile, in a statement today, Geelani complained that Government had let loose a reign of terror “particularly against Tehreek-e-Hurriyat and its key constituent Muslim League”. He alleged that a large number of people were being chased, harassed, arrested and detained on account of their participation in “peaceful demonstrations”. He warned the authorities that this form of “suppression” could boomerang and snowball into yet another spell of anarchy. According to him, peaceful political activists were being chased and treated like hardcore and top wanted militants.

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