After 13 yrs, Valley sees I-Day without bloodbath

In his speech, Sayeed called upon the militants to shun violence and asked Pakistan to ‘‘give notebooks to Kashmiri youths in place of guns.’’ Pointing towards the large crowd that had gathered in the stadium, the CM said it meant a positive change in the situation in the Valley. It was another matter that the deserted roads and lanes across the city spoke otherwise.

While the stadium was packed to capacity, most people preferred to stay indoors fearing militant attacks. Though the Hurriyat Conference and Jamaat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani had given separate calls for a general strike today, the fear of militant violence and a general indifference to the occasion were said to be the prime reasons for the people staying away from the celebrations.

It was learnt that the PDP and Congress had asked their party leaders to mobilise their cadres to ensure that there were enough people present in the stadium for the Independence Day celebrations.

Special buses were organised to ferry people from faraway villages in Tangmarg and Ganderbal, and the government machinery was geared up to facilitate their participation in the Independence Day celebrations.

The Chief Minister, in his speech, reiterated that his government would do anything to bring back normalcy to the state. Without naming the Hurriyat Conference, he urged the Centre to initiate a meaningful dialogue with ‘‘the people who did not join the electoral process last year’’. ‘‘Those people who did not take part in elections should be invited for negotiations,’’ he said.

The Chief Minister also raised the issue of opening of checkpoints along the LoC at Uri in Kashmir and Suchitgarh in Jammu. ‘‘Things will not change for the better unless the road links are opened (with Pakistan) at Uri and Suchitgarh. Let the people move freely. It will be an important step towards peace here,’’ he added.

‘‘Mufti sahib is working for peace with honour which is possible only if everybody, including Hurriyat and the militants, is party to it. See, he again demanded initiation of a dialogue,’’ said Ali Mohammad, a villager from Ganderbal who attended the function.

While there were reports of two militancy-related incidents today, both had nothing to do with Independence Day. In Pakharpora village of Pulwama, militants launched a grenade attack, injuring 25 people, sources said. In another incident, an improvised explosive device (IED) was detected and defused in Bandipore in North Kashmir, the sources added.