Kashmiris go fishing on shutdown day

Samaan Lateef

Tribune News Service

Srinagar February 9

People at several places in Kashmir took to fishing today when a shutdown was observed across the Valley.

Scores of people were seen at the shallow waters of Doodh-Ganga stream, which flows through the Srinagar city and empties into the Jhelum, to catch the prized trout fishes.

People had put up a barrier to halt the flow of water in Doodh-Ganga at Barzulla locality of Srinagar to curb the movement of fishes.

Locals said on shutdown days they often went fishing in the stream, which produces a huge quantity of trout fishes.

“In winters, the water level in Doodh-Ganga is very less and it becomes easy to catch fish here,” said Firdous Hassan, who had caught several Schizothorax fish, a commonly found trout in Kashmir.

In response to the separatists’ call for strike, Hassan had shut his shop at Barzulla and spent the day on the banks of Doodh-Ganga to catch fish. He managed to catch around 2 kg fish from the stream.

Most of the fish catchers roasted them on the banks of Doodh-Ganga and made a good feast. Also, people were seen catching fish in Batamalo and Chattabal localities of Srinagar.

The trout, a freshwater fish of Salmon family, is known for food and games. It is a distinctive fish produced in abundance in the Valley. Scores of water bodies and streams, including the Jhelum river (in South Kashmir), the Sindh River (in Central Kashmir) and Wullar lake and Madhumati stream in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district are rich in trout and other species of fish.

Separatists had called for a shutdown against the execution of 2001 Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru at Tihar jail on February 9, 2013. He was later buried there and the return of his mortal remains has been a consistent demand in Kashmir.