Curfew day 2: security blanket over Srinagar

The J&K administration threw an unprecedented security cordon around Srinagar with iron barricades, barbed wire and heavy deployment of police and paramilitary forces to enforce a curfew and halt the pro-Azadi procession and public sit-in at Lal Chowk called by the separatist leadership. The government has even blocked the Srinagar-Jammu highway and cancelled the curfew passes issued to select groups like doctors, paramedics, journalists and employees of essential services on Sunday.

While the Lal Chowk area was predictably milling with security men, other potentially troublesome areas also saw heavy deployment. There were around 300 police and CRPF men standing in the narrow lane leading to Maisuma, JKLF chief Yasin Malik’s neighbourhood, which had been sealed off from every side by massive iron blockades and barbed wire. “We have orders to shoot at anybody who tries to violate the curfew restrictions,” Inspector Raghubir Singh of CRPF told The Indian Express. “It has worked. The people spent the entire day inside their homes. It is all peaceful,” he added. Regarding the curfew passes which were cancelled, a police officer said, “There were apprehensions that people will assemble using fake curfew passes so we were asked to discourage all civilian movement irrespective of whether there is a curfew pass or not.”

J-K Chief Secretary S S Kapoor later made an appearance on Doordarshan to explain the reasons for the strict restrictions placed by the government. “We know that the people have faced problems because of the restrictions but we were forced to impose curfew in the larger public interest. We wanted to prevent violence,” Kapoor said.

The separatist leadership reacted sharply. Senior Hurriyat leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who is hospitalised, condemned the curfew and other stringent measures by the government to block the march. “We were trying to project our demands through the democratic way but it appears that there is little room for such democratic means. The use of force against people and arresting and filling police stations with youth is draconian,” he said. Geelani, however, asked the people to resume their normal activities on Wednesday. “The next date for the Lal Chowk march will be decided in the Coordination Committee meeting,” he added.

Top NC leader Ali Mohammad Sagar said that the unprecedented security measures had only made the common public suffer. “It shows how insecure the government feels by the Lal Chowk march,” he said.