By IRNA,
Srinagar, India : While Hindu majority Jammu is in ferment with agitators out in force despite curfew orders, Muslim dominated Kashmir valley is observing strike against any bid by government to accede to the demands of Jammu agitators to revert the land to Hindu Shrine Board.
A general shutdown called by separatists against the Amarnath land row threw normal life out of gear in the Kashmir valley Wednesday.
Syed Ali Geelani, leader of Hurriyat Conference had called the strike for Wednesday in a pre-emptive move to prevent New Delhi from any possible amendment of the order which cancelled transfer of 100 acres of forest land in South Kashmir to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB).
Geelani said that if the forest land revocation order was withdrawn, the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would be responsible for the ‘disastrous consequences that would follow’ such a move in the valley.
Capital Srinagar, and other major cities and towns are observing a complete strike with commercial establishments in main markets and even shops in interiors closed.
Government offices too are locked as employees stayed home with transport completely off the roads. “It appears curfew has been imposed in the city,” said Pervez Ahmad Kambay, a resident of Sopore now putting up in Srinagar.
Roads are deserted as people preferred to stay indoors much to the relief of police who were geared up to face street battles.
In south Kashmir’s Pulwama, Anantnag and north Kashmir’s Baramulla and Kupwara districts some groups of youth held demonstrations and burned tires to vent their anger against the land row that has had Jammu and Kashmir on the boil since May 26 when the government first ordered diversion of the land to the SASB.
Yasin Malik, chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), continued his indefinite hunger strike for the second day Wednesday.
Malik is protesting the economic blockade of the Jammu-Srinagar highway and attacks on members of the minority Muslim community in Jammu by the agitators.
With situation worsening and Kashmir fast turning into chaos of early nineties, alarm bells have started ringing in Delhi.
The prime minister was convening an all party meet to find a solution to the 38-day-old issue but there was little hope of a quick end to the violence which has polarized the state on Hindu and Muslim lines.