Nowhere to go in downtown Srinagar

Azhar Qadri

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, August 29

On the bridge over the Jhelum river near Qamarwari, one of the entry points into Srinagar’s old city, motorcyclists made a U-turn to evade a group of protesters who had gathered on the other side.

It is Monday morning and the state government has lifted a lengthy curfew from most parts of the Kashmir valley for the second time in the last eight weeks. The first time it was relaxed, since the unrest began on July 8 evening, was on July 26.

The reaction of protesting youth on Monday is eerily similar and a repeat of what happened last time when the curfew was lifted.

On the Qamarwari bridge, which connects western part of the city with Noorbagh downtown locality, policemen and paramilitary CRPF are deployed on the one side and, on the other side, protesters have set up roadblocks curtailing any attempt to enter the old city.

A white armoured police vehicle is parked on the edge of the bridge while a junior ranking police officer in a terse tone warns a motorcyclist not to go ahead.

It is the first sign that the protesting youth in Srinagar’s old city remain in a belligerent mood even as the government lifted curfew from its localities for the first time in many weeks.

The police on Sunday evening had announced lifting of the curfew from most parts of the Kashmir valley as it sensed an “improvement in the situation”. Inside Srinagar’s old city, areas falling under the jurisdiction of two of the five police stations were to remain under curfew.

The relaxation in curfew made an impact in the civil lines areas where a considerable movement of private vehicles was witnessed, even as markets remained shut.

An executive of an insurance company, who left home early morning for his office in the Lal Chowk locality, said little work was done as few employees had come. “We did some data work, other than that there was nothing that could be done,” he said.

In a market in the Lal Chowk area, a motorcyclist asked pedestrians about the address of a local outlet of a courier company. The outlet was shut.

However, the relaxation in the government-enforced curfew made little impact inside the volatile old city as the shutdown called by the region’s separatists continued and groups of protesters ensured the movement of vehicles remains curtailed.

The second attempt to enter the old city through the Chatabal road, along the river’s bank, ended at another roadblock manned by another group of protesters. The third attempt ended on the Safa Kadal bridge at a similar roadblock where protesters were blocking the road and a detour led to Nawa Kadal, where the police and paramilitary were rolling out concertina wire — a sign of reimposition of restrictions and uncertain times.