Few newspapers hit stands in Srinagar

Ehsan Fazili

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, August 11

For the past week now, Srinagar has been without national newspapers while most of the local dailies have either stopped their publication or drastically reduced the number of pages.

“Of the 164 daily English and Urdu newspapers, only 20 hit the stands on Sunday,” said an official in the information and public relations department here. “There is no direct communication with the journalists. Only some of them, mostly from the electronic media, attended the official briefing of the administration at a hotel in the Sonwar area,” officials said.

Following revocation of Article 370 and division of the state into two UTs, there have been restrictions under Section 144 of the CrPC and communication blockade since Monday last. The preparations for Eid-ul-Azha across the Kashmir valley seem to be missing with many markets closed.

“There was a good movement of traffic on Saturday and even on Sunday morning, but after the police announcements around noon on Sunday, the movement has come down,” said Mohammad Akbar on Residency Road.

A heavy rush of Eid shoppers was seen in Sanat Nagar and the Rawalpora area on Sunday morning. However, the police around noon made announcements from loudspeaker-fitted vehicles, asking the shopkeepers to shut shops and ordered people to disperse.