Life returns to normal after two days undeclared curfew in Kashmir

Srinagar, Nov 8 (UNI) Life returned to normal today after remaining crippled for two days due to undeclared curfew imposed by the authorities to foil 'the Jamia Masjid chalo call' given by the Coordination Committee (CC), spearheading the present agitation in Kashmir.

Chairman of the moderate Hurriyat Conference (HC) Mirwaiz Moulvi Omar Farooq, who was put under house arrest since Thursday morning, appealed to people last night to resume the normal activities from this morning.

Shops and other business establishments reopened in the summer capital and all other major towns and tehsils in the Kashmir valley after remaining closed for two days due to undeclared curfew.

Traffic was plying normally on all routes and educational institutions were functioning as usual.

The CC, an alliance of both the factions of the Hurriyat Conference (HC), the Kashmir Bar Association (KBA), the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), the Dukhtaran-e-Milat (DeM) and others, including separatist, traders and religious organisations, had appealed to the people to reach the Jamia masjid on Thursday.

However, when the authorities did not allow it to happen, the CC asked people to take part in the march yesterday. But this too was thwarted by the authorities after deploying hundreds of security forces who did not allow anybody to come out their homes in any part of the city.

Mirwaiz Omar, who was put under house arrest along with about a dozen other separatist leaders from Thursday moring, said this was for the first time in living memory that no Friday prayers were offered in the historic Jamia Masjid yesterday because of official restrictions.

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