Docs, lawyers join shutdown
Kashmir Valley remained shut for the seventh-day straight on Saturday and it was the turn of lawyers, doctors and paramedical staff of various hospitals to sign up with the separatists’ “Quit Jammu and Kashmir” catch phrase.
Even as Syed Salahuddin, the chief of Pakistan-based alliance of militant outfits United Jihad Council, had on Friday asked the Valley’s separatist political leadership to bear in mind the hardships being faced by the people in an upshot of frequent strikes, the Hurriyat Conference faction led by jailed Syed Ali Shah Geelani chose to issue a fresh calendar of week-long protests and strikes beginning on Monday.
Claiming that observing strikes was the only option available to the people to show resentment in the prevailing “repressive” situation, it also asked them to refuse to pay all kind of taxes and also water and electricity bills from July 28 as a part of a civil disobedience movement.
Paradoxically, parts of Srinagar and some other Valley areas on Saturday witnessed groups of youth, many of them wearing bandanas, holding protests against Syed Salahuddin accusing him of being “detached” from the ground reality in the Valley.
In another development, members of the Jammu and Kashmir police on Saturday staged a flag march in the central Srinagar areas, the hotbed of the unrest. It was after many days that the city’s 1.5 million population woke up to see curfew and other security restrictions had been lifted, but soon saw policemen back, this time to conduct a flag march.
Officials said it was done to infuse confidence into the residents.
Doctors and paramedics at Srinagar’s government medical college and some of the associated hospitals also held protests separately seeking an end to alleged human rights violations.
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