J&K govt will arrest 8,000 troublemakers

been arrested on the charges of creating disturbances on the streets of Kashmir. According to human rights activists, the government since 9 July has arrested more than 25,000 people. But the police contended they have arrested 6,000.

The Army on Tuesday arrested 44 persons in a joint search operation in old Baramulla in North Kashmir after cracking down on the area for 72 hours. Midnight raids in Chattabal area of Srinagar resulted in protests on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday. Similar clashes were reported from Shopian where recently 37 CRPF and police personnel were injured. Meanwhile, National Conference patron Farooq Abdullah has said that the government is clueless about restoration of normalcy. Senior PDP leader and MP from Baramulla, Muzaffar Hussein Beig has accused the NC of hatching a conspiracy with some serving J&K police officers to topple the Mehbooba Mufti coalition government. Burhan Wani was killed in a controversial encounter on 8 July, he said, with an aim to topple the Mehbooba government by creating mass unrest. Meanwhile, the government has sacked 13 government employees after feedback from the CID and other intelligence wings that they were participating in the protests. But the Employees Joint Action Committee has threatened to launch a mass agitation if the government failed to reinstate them. Aspiring entrepreneurs residing in the hostels of Entrepreneur Development Institute have demanded a probe following a second attack on the EDI building recently in which security forces are said to have pounded the hostel building with rockets and other ammunition. There had been a threeday long encounter earlier in February in the EDI complex leaving two Lashkar militants dead, after the administrative block of the EDI came under a militant attack.

But post this month’s militant attack, questions have been raised on the use of rockets by the security forces. According to the EDI employees, it will take at least a year and a half for the building to be restored and this is bad news for the young, educated but unemployed youth who wanted to get training in the institute and start their own business ventures. According to a senior official of the EDI, they had a target to impart training to about 5,000 candidates this year. The encounter in February, followed by the unrest of more than three months, was aggravated by the attack this month, and now the fate of the young boys hangs in balance.