The Kashmir Valley was shut on Saturday and tensions were high on the anniversary of Tufail Ahmed Mattoo, a 17-year-old student whose killing in police action here on this day last year set off widespread civil unrest in the region which left more than 110 people dead.
Incidentally, a man, Abdur Rashid Reshi, among those injured in the Railways Protection Force’s firing on a mob in Pampore during the unrest, died earlier during the day, heightening tensions in the highway township near here. While most shops and other businesses and educational institutions remained closed for the day, skeleton transport services plies on select routes in the Valley. Lawyers boycotted their courts and angry youth clashed with the police and CRPF for about one hour in central Srinagar localities of Saraf Kadal and Rajwari Kadal. Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who had called for Kashmir-wide general strike to commemorate those slain during the summer 2010 unrest and also some other key separatist leaders, were placed under house arrest while several political activists had been taken into preventive custody earlier.
Armed policemen and CRPF personnel in large numbers were seen patrolling the streets but unlike on such occasions in the past, no restrictions were imposed on movement of people except in the city’s Idgah and Rajwari Kadal areas. While Mr Geelani had announced he would join the memorial service at the Idgah “martyrs” cemetery, an all-religion committee set up in the Sayeda Kadal neighbourhood on the initiative of Tufail’s father had planned to erect a cenotaph at Gani Memorial Stadium.