Clashes and Curfew in Kashmir

SRINAGAR: Moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umer Farooq was heckled by some Kashmiri Pandits and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activists in Chandigarh on Thursday. Curfew was imposed in the Old City areas of Srinagar to prevent protests and violence on Friday.

At five police station areas of Srinagar city, curfew was clamped. Nowhatta, M.R. Gunj, Rainawari, Khanyar and Safa Kadal. Hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani was put under house arrest to thwart a protest march called by him after Friday prayers.

A police officer said, “Curfew will remain in force in five police station areas of Srinagar today (Friday) while Section 144 (prohibiting the gathering of people) has been imposed in other areas to prevent violence by miscreants.”

Clashes had broken out in some Old City areas after news about the assault on the Mirwaiz reached here. Old City areas of Srinagar are traditional strongholds of the Mirwaiz family.

Syed Ali Geelani, meanwhile, has called for a protest march after the congregational Friday prayers to construct a resistance wall at the martyrs’ graveyard in the Old City Eidgah area.

“I have no take on this incident, but that it was bound to happen. It is the people’s reaction to their policies and programmes.” Reacting to news reports about the Mirwaiz being heckled, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said in the winter capital Jammu Thursday.

“Each person should carry a brick in his hand after Friday prayers and march towards Eidgah where a memorial wall to the martyrs would be constructed today (Friday),” Geelani said in a statement here.

Although the authorities said movement of school children and office-goers would not be prevented in the curfew-bound areas, few people moved out of their homes. However, some school buses carrying children were seen in some of the curfew-bound places.

Authorities placed Geelani under house arrest in the city’s uptown Hyderpora area of the city, fearing violence during his proposed march.