STATE TIMES NEWS
SRINAGAR/JAMMU: Normalcy returned in Kashmir valley on Wednesday after three days of restrictions and strike in the aftermath of killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Sabzar Bhat in an encounter with security forces.
There were no restrictions anywhere in Kashmir, officials said, adding life was going on normally across the valley.
Shops, offices, fuel stations and other business establishments opened here this morning, while public transport resumed after three days, the officials said.
They said similar reports of restoration of normalcy were received from other districts of the valley.
However, the officials said classwork in all schools and colleges in the districts of Anantnag, Shopian, Pulwama and Budgam has been suspended for the day as a precautionary measure.
They said all higher secondary schools and colleges in Srinagar have also been closed.
The classwork in few higher secondary schools and colleges in the districts of Ganderbal and Kupwara has also been suspended for the day, but university-level examinations were being conducted as per the schedule, the officials said.
The authorities restored the outgoing call facility on prepaid numbers last night, but mobile internet services continued to remain suspended across the valley as a precautionary measure.
Curfew-like restrictions were imposed on Sunday in the districts of Anantnag, Pulwama, Kulgam and Shopian all in south Kashmir, as also in seven police station areas of Srinagar and in Sopore township in north Kashmir.
The restrictions were placed following the killing of Sabzar and his colleague in the encounter in Soimoh area of Tral in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district a day earlier. Separatist groups had called for a two-day strike from Sunday and had asked people to march to Tral on Tuesday to pay tributes to the slain militants.
Meanwhile, Jammu-Srinagar national highway was opened for a few hours this morning, allowing the movement of stranded vehicles, a traffic police officer said. Over 750 vehicles had left Jammu for Kashmir Valley till 11 AM today, the officer said. “No vehicle was allowed to move to Srinagar after that,” he said. The highway was closed in view of apprehensions of trouble after Hizbul Mujahideen commander Sabzar Bhat was killed in an encounter with security forces in Tral on Saturday.
The fears were compounded by Kashmir separatists leaders’ call for a march yesterday to Tral in Pulwama, close to the highway, to pay homage to Bhat.
Over 2000 vehicles were stranded on the highway from Lakhanpur towards Kashmir during the past two days after parts of the route were closed to traffic as a precautionary measure in view of the rising tension in the valley.
Traffic has also not been allowed on Mughal Road, which passes through Shopian and is an alternative fair-weather roadway connecting Jammu to the valley. It has been closed from Bafliaz towards Srinagar.
Over 100 vehicles, mostly oil tankers and trucks, which reached Jammu overnight, passed through areas where protesters threw stones at passing traffic, an office bearer of All Jammu and Kashmir oil tankers drivers and cleaners association said.
Over 30 trucks were damaged in the incidents of stone pelting, the office bearer said.
