Situation in Valley back to ‘normal’ as restrictions lifted

Life in Kashmir Valley returned to normal on Sunday after two days of restrictions and strike as the first death anniversary of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani remained largely peaceful.

There were no restrictions on the movement or assembly of people anywhere in the Valley on Sunday, officials said.

“There were a few incidents of stone-pelting yesterday (Saturday), but by and large the situation remained under control and peaceful,” the officials said.

A woman was injured when she sustained multiple pellet injuries in one such clash in Shopian town.

Authorities had imposed curfew in Shopian and Tral in south Kashmir and Trehgam in north, with strict restrictions enforced elsewhere in the Valley.

The separatist camp, including Hurriyat Conference factions led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and the Yasin Malik-led JKLF, had called for a strike on the day.

Internet services were also snapped on Thursday night as a precautionary measure.

However, on Sunday morning, life returned to normal as shops and other business establishments opened across the Valley, while public transport also plied smoothly.

A CRPF jawan was injured in a grenade attack by militants on a security forces’ camp in Tral, the police said on Sunday.

The ultras fired a UBGL grenade at a joint camp of CRPF and police at Aribal in Tral town at 10.30 pm on Saturday, a police official said.

He said a CRPF constable was injured in the grenade explosion. He was taken to a hospital here and the doctors said his condition was stable.

It has been over a week since the single tax regime, the Goods and Services Tax (GST), kicked in, and we all realised how it impacted our lives.

Some breads are more expensive, for example. But they can’t eat bread, let them eat cake, or so it seems, since the prices of luxury vehicles have been significantly reduced, by as much as 10% in some cases.

So have the prices of small cars, by just over 2%. Meanwhile, hybrids have become more expensive, by just over 12%.

But should we be having cake, especially when we can barely breathe in the NCR region?

In the last one year, there has been huge public horror at the state of the air. It’s unbreathable, except that we are all breathing it. It’s a health emergency.