Shutdown, protests, counter rallies across J&K
SRINAGAR: Army personnel patrolled Srinagar on Thursday, where many shops were shut to mark the second year since Jammu and Kashmir was stripped of its autonomy, as the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), a grouping of seven political parties in the region, resolved to continue the struggle for the restoration the “legitimate rights” of its people.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), however, celebrated the second anniversary of the revocation of Article 370 by holding Tiranga rallies and hoisting the national flag across Jammu and Kashmir, and the central government said that the decision has brought positives changes to the erstwhile state.
In 2019, the Centre withdrew the region’s long-standing constitutional privileges under Article 370 and split the state into two Union territories.
On Thursday, the PAGD alliance held a meeting of its constituents at its chairman and National Conference president Farooq Abdullah’s residence. After the meeting, CPI(M) leader MY Tarigami said the alliance “reiterated our resolve to continue our struggle for restoration our legitimate rights”.
Outside, there was a shutdown in Srinagar. Traders in Lal Chowk said police were forcing them to open their shops, while photojournalists alleged police were not allowing them to click pictures or videos as they forced shopkeepers to open.
SRINAGAR: On the second anniversary of the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status, the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) Thursday expressed concern over the situation in J&K and resolved to continue the struggle for the restoration the “legitimate rights” of its people.The central government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, however, said that the decision has brought positives changes in Jammu and Kashmir.
On August 5, 2019, the Centre nullified Article 370 and bifurcated Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories-- J&K and Ladakh. The Gupkar alliance held a meeting of its constituents at its chairman and National Conference president Farooq Abdullah’s residence in Gupkar area here.The meeting was attended by the PAGD’s vice chairperson and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti, its spokesperson and CPI(M) leader M Y Tarigami and senior vice president of Awami national Conference Muzaffar Shah.
Speaking to reporters outside Abdullah’s residence, Tarigami said the alliance “reiterated our resolve to continue our struggle for restoration our legitimate rights”. “Despite tall claims of the government, the situation since August 5, 2019 is worsening day by day. They claimed that normalcy will be restored and violence will end, but look what they have said on the floor of the Parliament recently in response to a question about statehood. The minister said that statehood will be restored only at an appropriate time when normalcy is restored,” he said.
The alliance spokesperson asked where was the investment and employment opportunities the Centre claimed the revocation of J&K’s special status will bring. “If you move around whether it is Kashmir or Jammu, or even in fact in Ladakh region as well, whatever development was initiated by the previous governments even that is not yet being completed...,” he said.
Mehbooba Mufti,too, led a protest march on the city’s Residency road to condemn the August 5, 2019, move. “No words or pictures are enough to depict the pain, torment & upheaval inflicted upon J&K on this black day two years ago. When unbridled oppression is unleashed & gross injustice heaped there is no other choice but to resist, to exist,” she said in a tweet.
Mehbooba said, “Today is a day of mourning for J&K. It is unfortunate that the BJP is celebrating across the country, while Kashmir is mourning.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, however, said the abrogation has brought “unprecedented peace and progress” in Jammu and Kashmir. “A historic day. Two years ago, on this day, the first big step towards a #NewJammuKashmir was taken. Since then, there has been unprecedented peace & progress in the region. Head to Your Voice section of Volunteer module on NaMo App for informative content, graphics and more!” he said in a Twitter post
The BJP’s J&K unit, too, celebrated the day by holding Tiranga rallies and hoisting the national flag across the region.
The Shiv Sena unit of J&K, led by its president Manish, also took out a Triranga rally in Jammu, chanting slogans of Bharat Mata Ki Jai.
Hundreds of extra police and troops were deployed in Srinagar as separatist groups called for a shutdown to mark a “black day”. Ahead of the second anniversary, security forces erected numerous new checkpoints and barricades across Srinagar with personnel in bulletproof gear checking vehicles and frisking residents on the roads.
Most shops were shut in parts of Srinagar even as the situation remained peaceful, officials said here. While shops in several areas of the city, including the Lal Chowk city centre, were closed, those in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district and parts of Budgam, Ganderbal and Kupwara were open.
However, shopkeepers in many areas, including Lal Chowk, alleged police were forcing them to keep their establishments open.