18 days of lockdown, Srinagar is still coping

Srinagar: It was the 18th day of the security lockdown in the Kashmir Valley on Thursday, forcing a vast majority of people to stay indoors. However, several parts of Srinagar, where restrictions were lifted a few days ago, saw increased vehicular movement Thursday.

At places, a few shops were open and pavement sellers in sizeable numbers too were out to sell their merchandise. Fruit sellers too had set up kiosks at street corners, while petrol pumps were open in city’s Hyderpora, Bemina, Nowgam, Durga Nag, Pantha Chowk-Athwajan and other areas. This facility was available at these locales only in the evenings in the past few days. Several primary and middle-level schools were open, but there were hardly any students.

However, the remaining parts of the summer capital, including the politically sensitive central areas, also known as “Shar-e-Khas”, continued to remain under strict security restrictions, making life difficult for its residents.

The snapping of landlines, mobile phones and Internet services, as well as other means of communications, has made it almost impossible for them to be in touch with the outside world. They connect with their neighbourhoods either through word of mouth or they use mosque loudspeakers.

While on a visit to the heart of central Srinagar, this correspondent learnt that residents relocate to “Mala Khah”, a Muslim cemetery spread over a large area at  the foothills of Hari Parbat, and its neighbourhood to buy vegetables, milk and eatables from makeshift bazars set up at dawn and shut before the arrival of the security forces at around 7 am.

Fresh vegetables reach there from the floating gardens of the nearby Dal and Nigeen Lakes, whereas milk and other eatables and foodgrains are transported from neighbouring villages during night-time.

The locals said that some shops, mainly groceries, bakeries and pharmacies, are opened in select parts deep inside the old city around dawn and again at 9 pm. They said that the security forces usually avoid entering these labyrinth streets and dark alleys.

Many of the congested areas of central Srinagar have during the past 17 days routinely witnessed small crowds of youth marching along the streets in the evenings. On several occasions, they clashed with the security forces. Some witnesses told this newspaper that each time these slogan-chanting crowds tried to come on to a main road or a square, the security forces fired teargas canisters and occasionally also pellet shotguns to disperse them. The two sides would then fight pitched battles for a couple of hours.

They also talked about several instances where the security forces were targeted with rocks and other missiles by irate crowds of youth while withdrawing from the area for the night. The latter would respond by firing teargas or pellet guns. In one such clash, a youth was injured in the city’s Fatah Kadal area on Tuesday night.

According to a resident, Nazir Ahmed Dar, the security forces have lately exercised restraint while dealing with such situations. “I’m witness also to the happenings of 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2016. They (security forces) would then fire their rifles or pellet shotguns at the slightest provocation. This time I could see them exercising restraint... I tell you what I have seen with my own eyes.”

In several areas the locals have “secured” these by placing barriers at the entry points opening on main roads or side streets. An elderly resident, Abdur Razzaq Ahangar, said the locals use these lanes and bylanes for passage. “The security forces either don’t know about these passageways or they consider it dangerous to enter the localities through these,” he added.

He accused the security forces of damaging and even ransacking houses and beating up “whosoever comes across them” in reprisal for the stone-pelting, and sometimes “without any provocation”. He said it is for this reason that the entry points to these localities have been blocked by the locals. The authorities deny all such allegations.