Shocked and enraged by the sex abuse scandal, angry citizens soon gathered into a 2000-strong violent mob near the Haba Kadal bridge where Sabeena lived. They stormed the three-storey house, smashed its roof, battered its walls and windows and tossed the valuables out of the house and into the river. Later, they would light a bonfire of these items. The outrage was spontaneous.The following day, however, anger sought easier targets. Scores of youth, armed with metal rods, descended on the city’s beauty parlours and warned them of dire consequences if they don’t close shops. The apparent provocation were a few so-called “sex lists” in circulation that named some of these parlours. The next day, most of the city’s beauty shops were closed.The Valley’s women in black — Dukhtaran-i-Millat — took to the street and raided house of one of the accused at Bemina in Srinagar and sealed it. And at a student protest in Kashmir University, they came out with some "objectionable" material including a personal diary of the accused, they said, was recovered from her house.The moral policing took a new turn when a little-known militant organisation called for a ban on the cable television in the Valley. The militant outfit Al Madina regiment issued a diktat to the cable operators across the Valley asking them to stop their operations as the channels beamed by them “encourage immorality” and “waywardness”.Soon the television sets in Srinagar turned blank as the cable operators stopped their operations. The militant call surprised not only the common people but even the hardline separatist leaders. “Why should the television channels dealing with news and other information based programmes be banned?” asked Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani. Even the woman hardliner group that started a campaign against “immorality” in the society in 2005, was skeptical of the militant decree. Next day, the largest indigenous militant outfit asked the cable operators to resume the service. Hizbul spokesman Junaid-ul-Islam said the ban on cable TV is tantamount to preventing the coverage of the scandal.However, on the streets of Srinagar, the so-called “sex lists” continued to do the rounds and the high court had to intervene. The police, too, have warned the people of severe punishment if they are caught distributing such provocative material.
