Owais Gul
Srinagar: Srinagar, the summer capital of the state witnessed a partial shutdown on Monday after the rumours were spread about the abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir’s State Subject Law, Article 35-A in this morning.
Chaos was witnessed in the commercial Hub Lal Chowk after a group of youth took to the streets and imposed the shutdown and resorted to stone pelting in the area.
Soon after the stone pelting incident occurred at Lal Chowk, the shopkeepers in the area closed down their respective shops while as the traffic came to a standstill for half an hour as well.
Several other areas in Srinagar also observed a spontaneous shutdown today after the rumours were spread about the scarping of the constitution.
The areas that observed shutdown include Maisuma, Gow Kadal, Basant Bagh, Habba Kadal, Barbar Shah, Safa Kadal and Lal Chowk.
Shutdown and protests erupted in North Kashmir’s Baramulla, bandipora districts while kupwara observed shutdown.
Budgam observed shutdown while protests and clashes between youth and police broke out in Anantnag, Shopian, kulgam, pulwama.
Witnesses told Ins that all the shops were instantly closed at Lal Chowk after the youth hit the streets to protest against the abrogation of Article 35-A.
They said that the other shopkeepers in the nearby markets also closed down their shops, thus simultaneously led to the chaos in several areas here.
Soon after the chaos, Hurriyat Conference (M) chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq took to the social networking site and said that a fresh petition being filed today at Supereme Court (SC) against Article 35-A has nothing to do with the case already listed for hearing with a bunch of petitions filed by various individuals and groups.
“A confusion is being created among people about the hearing of case pertaining to Article 35A in the Indian Supreme Court for today. In this regard,what has been reported in media,is that a fresh case has been filed challenging Article 35A in ISC This has nothing to do with the original case pending in ISC which is listed for 31st ,though the exact date would be made public on Tuesday. Most likely this new case may also be clubbed with the petitions filed by RSS backed NGOs and individuals,” Mirwaiz tweeted.
The state police also urged people for calm, asking them not to pay heed over the rumours.
Police spokesman said that the main hearing on Article 35-A is listed for August 31.
“Confusion has been created about listing of the Article 35-A case in the Supreme Court for today. In this regard, let me clarify that it is a fresh case filed with regard to Article 35A which has been listed at S. No 10 before Chief Justice. This has nothing to do with the original case pending in SC which may be listed for 31st though the exact date would be made public on Tuesday. Probably this new case may also be clubbed with the petition filed by RSS backed NGO ‘we the citizens’,” he added.
Five persons were injured during protests which erupted following rumors that the supreme court was hearing Article 35A petition challenging it’s vires today.
In shopian 22 people were injured while six among them were shifted to Srinagar.
With inputs from Sameer Ahmad, nasir khuihami, mudassir maqbool, peerzada Waseem, Mir showkat, naveed bhat
