As unrest enters 3rd week, Kashmir is frozen in time

Azhar Qadri

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, July 22

It doesn’t matter anymore what hour of the day it is in Kashmir as thousands of residents spent another day on Friday under curfew and restrictions with signal to their mobile phones remained turned off on orders of the state government.

In the latest spell of turbulent days in Kashmir, there are no rush hours.

The traffic signals obediently flash green and red to deserted roads. A few traffic policemen sit idly on a pavement in the Lal Chowk, the commercial nerve centre of Srinagar where markets have remained shut for the past 14 days. There is no traffic for them to regulate.

Friday marked the completion of two weeks of unrest in Kashmir that was triggered by the killing of militant commander Burhan Wani on July 8 evening. The protests that erupted in the aftermath of Wani’s killing have continued since then with no end in sight to shutdowns and curfews.

The ominous siren of ambulances, which signalled a new casualty or injury somewhere, have fallen silent as fewer incidents of police and paramilitary firing have been reported in the past two days.

It is the third major summer unrest in the Kashmir valley in the past eight years, the first erupting in 2008 and another paralysing agitation hitting the region in 2010. This summer, however, is different.

The number of civilian fatalities and injuries in the first two weeks has been unprecedented with death toll reaching 46. The number of civilians who have been wounded and hospitalised has crossed the 2,000 mark.

During the initial days of the unrest, a general feeling expressed by many residents was that this round of protests and shutdowns will be short-lived. However, with region remaining shut, its many sub-districts under curfew and the communication networks grounded for the 14th day, this feeling has evaporated.

“It is going to be long, otherwise it would have opened,” a tea stall owner outside the Lambert Lane market in the city said. The observation made by the tea stall owner is becoming a common reply to the question of what next.

An owner of a departmental store in Srinagar said, “He hopes that the situation becomes normal soon. But it does not look like anything is going to get restored,” he said.

At a posh hotel in the city here, which was teeming with holidaymakers before the unrest began, all rooms are now vacant. “Everyone has left. There is only one guest here now, a foreigner who arrived in the morning,” the hotel staff said. All bookings for the immediate future, which remains clouded in uncertainty, have been cancelled.

Fridays are potential flashpoint days in Kashmir as thousands attend midday congregational prayers at mosques. Last Friday, two civilians were killed in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district and in south Kashmir Kulgam districts. This Friday, a brief lull of two days in civilian casualties ended on another death note.

An injured civilian succumbed during early morning hours and a second civilian was killed in the evening, leading the region towards another uncertain day, like it happened on all previous days.