Mirwaiz's ends hunger strike against wine shop

Srinagar, Apr 21: The South Kashmir's Mirwaiz Ahmed Yasir ended his indefinite hunger strike this afternoon after Anantnag district administration assured him that the wine shop will be closed.

Mirwaiz Yasir ended his strike when he was offered a glass of juice by Additional Deputy Commission (ADC) Anantnag Sardar Jaipal Singh.

He assured Mirwaiz that the license of the shop will not be renewed after its expire on April 30.

Mr Singh further assured him that no new license for opening of the wine shop would be issued by the authorities.

The authorities have recently granted permission to open liquor shop - the first in south Kashmir in 18 years - at Khannabal in the district on Srinagar-Jammu national highway.

The 24-year-old Mirwaiz Yasir said he had earlier threatened continue his hunger strike till the wine shop, which he said would increase criminal activities and gambling in Anantnag, is shut down.

Almost all wine shops and cinema halls across the Kashmir valley were closed in early 1990s following the outbreak of militancy.

However, two cinema halls in high security zones reopened after the government provided them financial help in 1996-97.

Two wine shops also were doing business in the Dal Lake area while two more shops at Alochibagh and high security Sonawar were closed after massive protests by the local residents.

Another half a dozen supporters of Mirwaiz who had joined the strike also ended their fast.

Mirwaiz is the son of one Qazi Nisar, who was killed by unidentified gunmen in 1994, and had launched a campaign against obscenity, cinema halls, beauty parlours and wine shops in south Kashmir during the early 1990s when the separatist-violence erupted. Mirwaiz Yasir said it was a deliberate attempt to pollute society.

On the one hand government was setting up de-addiction camps but it is actually encouraging people to take drugs on the other hand, he said.

UNI