Friday, March 29, 2024

Curfew, lockdown enters 54th day in IoK

Curfew, lockdown enters 54th day in IoK
September 27, 2019
SRINAGAR (92 News) – Curfew and lockdown continued at 54th consecutive day on Friday (today) in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IoK) from August 5 when Narendra Modi government announced scraping of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. Normal life continues to get hit across the Valley for the 54th consecutive day as shops and business establishments are closed from Srinagar to as far as Uri town in Baramulla district in Kashmir and Muslim majority area of Doda in Jammu region in IoK. Though government offices and schools are open, they almost remain empty despite the efforts of the administration to make it look otherwise as employees are not turning up and parents are reluctant to send their wards to educational institutions because of apprehensions about their safety. Even as few vendors have set up stalls at various places and majority of the landlines have been restored, but they couldn’t cater to the needs of the people due to the imposation of curfew. Main markets and other business establishments continued to remain closed and public transport is off the road in the occupied territory. Most of the interiors in Srinagar’s old city continue to remain sealed with iron barricades and concertina wire while deployment of police and paramilitary forces is intact in the city and all major towns and villages across the Kashmir valley. The clampdown has not only affected inter-district road connectivity drastically, but has also thrown great challenges for old city residents due to shutting of factories, industries and other work places. Meanwhile, report says that continued internet blockade and snapping of mobile phones are forcing scores of researchers, including doctors, to move out of the Kashmir valley to complete their assignments. A senior professor of Kashmir University said everything has come to a grinding halt since 5th of August. Meanwhile, Indian officials confirmed that as many as 343 politicians, business leaders and young boys, booked under black law, Public Safety Act, have been shifted to jails in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana in India since the revocation of the special status of the territory on 5th August. However, independent sources say that the number of actual detainees imprisoned outside jails under PSA is far more than the one stated by the officials.