By: Minya Tufail, Asstt. Bureau Chief, ICN-J&K
Political parties take out protests, defy ban
SRINAGAR: Normal life of Kashmiris got badly affected on Sunday due to highway ban announced by Government of India. In an order issued by Home Ministry, the highway shall remain closed on Sunday and Wednesday every week, from 9am to 5pm until May 31, for all kinds of civilian traffic to “enable smooth flow of forces convoys from Jammu to Baramulla”.
The ban has irked all sections of society & people from all walks of life are up the ante against the “dictatorial order”. The highway wore a deserted look with only security forces, state police and Army personnel deployed in strength to prevent people from moving towards the highway.
However, district authorities have now appointed nodal officers to help people to cross the highway at important places.
Meanwhile, former Chief minister of the state, Omar Abdullah slammed the government by terming the ban as “mindless order”. In a tweet, he wrote, “Driving to Uri I’m getting to see first hand the extent of disruption & inconvenience that is being caused to people because of the mindless highway closure order that is in place today”.
Lately, his party National Conference staged a strong protest on highway under the leadership of party president Dr Farooq Abdullah. Abdullah termed the order as “dictatorial”& threatened government to lift the ban or face mass agitation. He said, “We aren’t the colony of any state but an independent nation. How can commoners move when forces occupied every nook and corner of the highway”?
He further added, “During my stint as CM in 1999, Kargil war happened but highway was open for both civilians and forces to felicitate the movement”.
JKPDP president Mehbooba Mufti too jumped the gun and called the ban “Suppression of Kashmiris”. She made a furious appeal to public to come out from homes & defy the highway ban.
Bhartiya Janta Party & its ally Peoples Conference headed by Sajad Lone, called ban as “Humanitarian disaster”. Both requested Governor of J&K to scrap the order.
In a weekly column to Kashmir daily, a Producer cum Associate Professor Aijaz-ul-Haque, from EMMRC University of Kashmir, articulated the ban as “Mind your body”. He wrote, “Minds were already chained, now bodies can’t move”.
An official spokesman said the ban was imposed in view of large number of security personnel being moved around for election duty in the state. The ban will be in place from Udhampur to Baramulla via Srinagar.
The decision comes in the aftermath of the suicide attack on a CRPF convoy on the highway in Pulwama district of south Kashmir on February 14, which left 49 CRPF personnel dead, besides another attempt to target a CRPF convoy with a car bomb on the highway near Banihal in Ramban district on March 30 last month.
Amid public outrage against the curbs, the authorities earlier clarified that patients, students, tourists and others in emergency will be allowed to move after scrutiny during the restrictions.
There were people who had patients in the vehicles and wanted to take them to hospitals or parents accompanying their children on way to competitive exam centres conducted by Board of Professional Entrance Examinations.
A groom from Anantnag district, who got married in Doda district on other side of the Jawahar Tunnel, had to obtain permission from the authorities concerned to take his wedding entourage to the bride’s home.
Danish Ali, a resident of New Qazibagh in Anantnag, got the permission for himself and his 12 companions to travel on the highway on Saturday and Sunday, but only after the entourage was put to proper frisking and security check.
However, the scale of inconvenience caused by the ban order became visible on the very first day as dozens of people could be seen at each intersection, pleading the government forces to allow them to cross to the other side of the highway.
