Day 16 too sees closed shops, deserted roads

Azhar Qadri

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, July 24

The Kashmir region has hit a different status quo: a communication blockade, shutdowns, and curfews that entered the 16th day today. Each day over the last two weeks, since militant commander Burhan Wani was killed in a gunfight in a south Kashmir village on July 8, the daily scenes have got repeated with fewer variations.

Among the few variations is the toll that has kept changing, fuelling more anger, and further worsening the situation. On Saturday, the 15th day of unrest, the toll remained static.

On Sunday, the day 16, the numbers changed again. Two people died – a cop who was injured in a grenade attack on a police station during the ongoing unrest and a young civilian who was hit by bullet during the early days of the unrest.

Everything else has remained in the state of paralysis. The roads of Srinagar are deserted, with no passenger buses and no cabs. The markets are shut and the shops shuttered.

The paramilitary personnel in jungle camouflages and police personnel in khaki – armed with assault rifles, tear smoke guns and pellet guns – patrol the roads and sit under the shade on roadside pavements to escape the daytime heat.

The old city neighbourhoods, and several districts of the region, continue to remain under an indefinite curfew, while the mobile communication including Internet remain blocked as government attempted to quell the protests.

“Communication blackout has escalated problems of anxiety and depression among people and they are at a greater risk of becoming violent,” Nisar-ul-Hassan, president of Doctors’ Association Kashmir, said. The doctor said the people are feeling “caged inside”. “They do not know what the situation is in villages and towns across the Valley, where their friends and relatives stay,” he said.