Indefinite curfew has been clamped on most parts of Srinagar as protests by Shia residents against an offensive religious inscription on shoes reportedly made in China set off sectarian clashes in Zadibal-Hawal area of the city on Wednesday.
While the district magistrate has imposed curfew in the areas falling under nine police stations of Nowhatta, M.R. Ganj, Safakadal, Khanyar, Rainawari, Nigeen, Lal Bazaar, Zadibal and Parimpora with immediate effect, senior police officials have rushed to the affected localities to facilitate a meeting between the respectable citizens belonging to both Shia and Sunni sects of Muslims to defuse tensions and sort out the issues. Also, police and CRPF reinforcements have arrived in the areas to enforce curfew.
Earlier on Wednesday, groups of youth took to the streets in Zadibal, Ashai Bagh and some other localities of Srinagar with sizeable Shia population to hold protests, a day after a resident had reportedly found the name of Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of Prophet Muhammad who is also the first Shia Imam, inscribed on a pair of shoes he had purchased from Magam, also a Shia dominated town in northwest Baramulla district. The local police immediately detained the shop-owner and took up investigations. As the word about the “sacrilegious” act spread, protests were held by people, mainly Shia youth, in different parts of Baramulla. A report said that the shoes had a US-company tag; hence the protesters were heard chanting slogans against that country and its ally-Israel.
On Wednesday morning, parts of Srinagar also erupted over the alleged objectionable inscription and both at Zadibal-Hawal and Ashai Bagh irate Shia youth not only forced traders to suspend their work but also started attacking passing vehicles with stones and lathis damaging scores of them.
When a shopkeeper at Hawal resisted the youth they turned the ire at the local Sunni traders hurling rocks and other missiles at their establishments. Several residential houses and cars parked along the side-streets were also attacked, witnesses said. Soon groups of Sunni youth appeared at the scene to retaliate.
A handout issued by the police said that it has taken the cognisance of “skirmishes” between two sectarian communities in Zadibal area. “The civil and police administration are monitoring the situation. There are no reports of anybody getting injured. However, sporadic incidents of stone pelting have been reported,” it added.
Also, several other parts of central Srinagar were tense on Wednesday as the police raided several residential houses overnight to arrested over a dozen local youth allegedly involved in stone-pelting incidents occurred in the areas earlier this week.