Life returns to normal in Kashmir after daylong strike

Srinagar, Feb 10: Life returned to normal in Kashmir valley on Sunday after remaining paralysed for a day due to strike, called by separatists on the sixth death anniversary of the Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, who was hanged and later buried in Delhi’s Tihar jail on February 9, 2013.
Curfew-like restrictions, imposed in the downtown and Shehar-e-Khas (SeK) in Srinagar on Saturday for security reasons, have also been lifted.
However, the situation was tense in parts of south Kashmir district of Kulgam, where five militants were killed in an encounter with security forces on Sunday afternoon.

Shops and business establishments, which remain open on Sundays, reopened in Srinagar and all other major towns and tehsil headquarters on Sunday and traffic was also plying normally on all routes in the valley.
The shops, which remain open on Sundays, reopened in the main business hubs of Civil Lines, including at Hari Singh High Street, Gonikhan, Residency Road, Maulana Azad Road, Maharaj Bazar, Batmaloo, Iqbal Park, Dalgate, Regal Chowk and Budshah Chowk.

Roads leading to the historic Ganta Ghar in Lal Chowk, the nerve centre of this summer capital, which was closed with barbed wires on Saturday, were reopened for the public.

Hundreds of vendors have put up their stalls in the historic three-km Sunday market, stretching from Radio Kashmir (RK), Srinagar to Hari Singh High Streets (HSHS), and passing through the historic Lal Chowk. The market, which was shut last week for security reasons in view of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s day-long visit to the state, attracts hundreds of buyers from different parts of the valley.

Reports of normalcy were also reported from this and other north Kashmir towns and tehsil headquarters, a report from Baramulla said. Shops and business establishments are open and traffic plying on all routes, including Sopore, which is the hometown of Guru. Life was reported to be normal in central Kashmir districts of Ganderbal and Budgam, where business and other activities resumed this morning.
Business and other activities also resumed in Anantnag and other south Kashmir district and tehsil headquarters, barring Kulgam, where instantaneous shutdown was observed after the news of the death of five militants in an encounter spread in the area on Sunday afternoon.