Police stalls Opp. meet at Farooq’s residence

The authorities on Wednesday stalled the Opposition leaders’ move to meet here to deliberate on the prevailing situation and formalise a joint strategy on issues, a year after Jammu and Kashmir was stripped of special status and split up into two Union Territories.

The meeting was scheduled to take place at the residence of former chief minister and NC president Farooq Abdullah along Srinagar’s high-security Gupkar Road. However, the J&K police, with the help of CRPF, sealed the area by laying Concertina razor wire and erecting steel barricades at all entry and exit points to foil the meet. A spokesman of the NC said, “Evidently, the government has abandoned any pretence of being democratic.”

CPI(M) leader Muhammad Yousuf Tarigami, who was among the invitees said, “It would have been after months of incarceration and denial of liberty that we could sit somewhere to open our

hearts, inquire about each other’s welfare, discuss the issues and decide how best we could help the people towards coming out of the miseries they undergo.”

Srinagar on Wednesday virtually remained under curfew whereas strict security restrictions were imposed in other major towns of the Valley. The authorities said that the restrictions on the movement of people are necessary

in view of the Covid19 pandemic.

The police, apart from denying the Opposition leaders’ the chance to converse for real, foiled the PDP’s plan to hold a demonstration here against the abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of J&K.

Several mainstream activists, including PDP’s Rouf Bhat who had announced at a press conference

here on Monday that the party would be holding a protest rally on August 5, were taken into preventive custody.

Also, large contingents of policemen were deployed outside the residences of politicians belonging to both mainstream and separatist camps across the Valley. The security had been beefed up further in Jammu region.