Major parts of Srinagar were placed under curfew again on Friday to stop Muharram procession to pass through its traditional route as the government authorities feared the separatists could seize the occasion for display of their routine anti-India harangue and also to foment trouble.
Key separatist leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq were earlier placed under house arrest and not allowed to walk to mosques to join Friday congregations. The Mirwaiz had on Thursday at a press conference pledged he would defy security restrictions if again imposed on Srinagar and will relocate to Srinagar’s Grand Mosque to deliver Friday sermon. He had earlier shifted his base from his private residence at Nageen near Hazratbal shrine here to his party headquarters Mirwaiz Manzil in central Srinagar and located less than half a kilometre from Jama Masjid.
But police overnight arrived at Mirwaiz Manzil and after evicting him from there drove him to his Nigeen house where he was put under house arrest. Several activists of the Mirwaiz’s Awami (People’s) Action Committee were taken into custody and lodged at two Srinagar police stations.
While areas falling under seven police stations remained under security restrictions and the presence of security forces on the streets was high, the day passed off peacefully. No attempt to defy the curfew restrictions or take out the Zuljinah procession from traditional start point Aabi Guzar was made.
However, mourning processions and Tazias were organised in parts of the summer capital having sizeable Shia populations. Zuljinah and Tazia processions were taken out also in other parts of Jammu and Kashmir.
The authorities have imposed undeclared ban on mourning procession on the 8th and 10th day of Muharram, the first month of Islamic Hijra calendar, to commemorate the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, and his other family members in the battle of Karbala (Iraq) about 14 centuries ago are not allow to pass through traditional routes since 1990s in Srinagar when the Kashmiri separatist campaign burst into a major violence. But such assemblies are allowed in Shia-dominated areas in the city and elsewhere in the state throughout Muharram.