Mujtaba Wani
SRINAGAR: Life has been paralysed in Kashmir due to a shutdown called by separatist groups to protest against the Indian Prime Minister’s visit to the valley.
Shops, businesses and schools are closed and the streets are deserted.
Police and paramilitaries have been deployed in strength across the valley and an undeclared curfew is in force in Srinagar, the summer capital and main city of the region.
Yesterday a daring attack by members of the Hizbul Mujahideen militant group killed eight army soldiers and wounded several others.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived at Udhampur and went to Kishtwar where he also adressed a public gathering. He is due to meet local officials later today at the Sher-i-Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC) in Srinagar to review the progress of development projects in the state.
Tomorrow, Singh is scheduled to inaugurate the Banihal-Qazigund rail line which will bring the valley just one step short of being connected with India’s vast railway network.
Separatist leaders like the octogenarian Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik have appealed to people to stay indoors to mark their protest against New Delhi’s rule in the region.
They say the Kashmir dispute could not be resolved by “economic grants and developing rail services.”
The undeclared curfew in Srinagar, with a population of more than 1.5 million people, has caused a lot of problems to local residents and tourists as well.
Some of the tourists who spoke to a local reporter told him “We wish we had never come to this place. It is like a cage.”
