Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Aug 14: Curfew continued for sixth consecutive day today without any relaxation in Kishtwar town while day curfew was almost lifted from seven other districts, which limped back to near normalcy after five days of massive protests across the Jammu region against August 9 violence in Kishtwar.
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry today called off its call for extension of Jammu bandh by 48 hours after all of its demands pertaining to compensation to traders of Kishtwar, who had suffered massive losses in rioting and arson by the mob last Friday, were conceded by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.
The Chamber had extended the bandh call by 48 hours late last night after some of its queries were not addressed by Omar during email conversation between its office bearers and the Chief Minister’s Office.
The only hitch pertaining to release of compensation within one month after the completion of assessment was also cleared today with Omar acceding to the demand.
The email conversation between the Chamber and the CM office resumed this afternoon with the CCI demanding that the distribution of relief should be completed within 15 to 20 days after the completion of assessment.
In his reply addressed to YV Sharma, president CCI Jammu, Mr Abdullah said: “in continuation of our mail dated 13/8/2013 addressed to you, you are hereby informed that the disbursement of the relief shall be made within a period of one month of the assessment getting completed’’.
Last night, the email communication between Chamber and the Chief Minister was deadlocked with former insisting on making distribution of relief time bound. The Chief Minister had conveyed to the Chamber president yesterday that the Government will provide adequate relief to those, who has suffered loss of property/business in the recent Kishtwar incident and in its aftermath.
He had announced that a committee will be constituted to assess actual damages after making thorough ground assessment of such losses. The Government shall, therefore, based on the assessment so conducted, release the relief. “It will be the endeavour of the Government to complete the process of assessment within the next one month,’’ he added.
Earlier in the morning, a Chamber delegation headed by Mr Sharma and comprising Arun Gupta, secretary general, Sham Langar, senior vice president, Deepak Aggarwal, secretary and Bharat Bushan, treasurer met Devender Singh Rana, NC provincial president, Planning Minister Ajay Sadhotra, Housing Minister Raman Bhalla and PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control Minister Sham Lal Sharma at the residence of Mr Rana, who played the role of facilitator, for over an hour and discussed the losses caused to the traders and demand for making distribution of relief time bound and waiving off certain terms and conditions to compensate the traders.
The Chamber expressed satisfaction over the Chief Minister’s final reply to their query making assessment of damages and distribution of relief time bound and called off 48 hours bandh call.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had reached here on Sunday afternoon and stayed here for four days to end the crisis arising out of 72 hours bandh call by BJP and other organisations, followed by another 24 hours bandh called by the VHP and 48 hours bandh by the Chamber.
Omar left for Srinagar this afternoon only after the Chamber announced that it has called off the bandh after receiving latest communication from the Chief Minister and the issue has been settled down in Jammu.
Sources said during his four days stay in Jammu, Omar monitored the situation with senior colleagues apart from civil and police administration to ensure that the trouble didn’t flare up and law and order was maintained at any cost. “The situation had the potential of taking twist like 2008 Amarnath land agitation but the issues were addressed timely,’’ they added.
Chamber secretary general Arun Gupta also expressed his gratitude to the Government for conceding demands of the traders and the business community for fully supporting the genuine cause of the traders, who had suffered losses.
According to sources, some close aides of the Chief Minister remained engaged in Track-II diplomacy to defuse the crisis.
Meanwhile, curfew continued in Kishtwar town and outskirts for sixth consecutive day today without any relaxation as Army remained deployed in sensitive areas along with CRPF and police. Situation remained tense in the town though, officials said, it was well under control.
Officials said they were trying to strike a patch up between the two communities before giving relaxation in curfew to ensure that the trouble didn’t erupt again.
However, Sanatan Dharam Sabha, Kishtwar president Hans Raj told the Excelsior on telephone from Kishtwar that there was no point of meeting with the administration unless DIG Doda-Ramban range and DySP (Headquarters) Kishtwar were removed from their posts and a CBI probe was ordered in Friday’s violence.
“We are being approached for talks but we are not going to meet anyone since the police officials, who had virtually converted Kishtwar into Pakistan, are still at the helm of affairs,’’ Hans Raj said, adding they will boycott the administration completely unless their demands were met.
Asserting that minorities were peace loving and believed in dialogue to resolve all the issues, he said it was up to the Government and the administration to create conditions for the talks. He said they had informed the administration well in advance about developing situation in Kishtwar but they took no steps to protect the minorities and their properties and gave a free hand to the miscreants to loot, torch and damage their property running into crores of rupees.
Official sources said Army, CRPF and police patrolled sensitive areas of Kishtwar to maintain law and order. The residents said they were running short of essential commodities for six consecutive days of curfew. They demanded that authorities should relax curfew for few hours to allow them purchase essential commodities.
Meanwhile, seven vehicles carrying stranded pilgrims of Machail Mata Ji were cleared last night from Gulabgarh in Kishtwar district under Army protection and were shifted to Udhampur and Jammu. However, few pilgrims were still left stranded in the shrine area and Gulabgarh and could be cleared tonight, sources said.
Meanwhile, Army today came to the rescue of a Czech couple stuck in curfew-bound Kishtwar district since August 8.
The couple — Aleshilik and his wife Marketa — was taken to Jammu in an Army vehicle this morning.
Aleshilik told over phone, “Indian Army today helped us come out of Kishtwar and we are highly indebted to them for their humanitarian role.”
“We did not request them for help, but they came forward after hearing our plight in a local hotel,” he said.
“We had sought help from police, district administration and the Chief Minister, but there was no response,” he added.
Aleshilik and his wife were preparing for a trekking expedition for Dacchan and Paddar areas and to Zanaskar belt of Ladakh, when communal violence broke out in Kishtwar and curfew was imposed, leaving them stranded in a hotel in the town.
The couple left for New Delhi from Jammu this evening.
Curfew was relaxed in all six districts of Jammu, where it had been imposed on August 10 and 11, in phased manner. Day curfew has been lifted in Samba, Kathua, Udhampur, Reasi and Rajouri.
However, in Jammu district, authorities relaxed curfew in City South from 9.30 am to 12 noon but extended the relaxation period up to 8 pm. In Eastern City, curfew was relaxed at 12 noon for a period of two hours but relaxation went up to 8 pm. Similarly in City North, curfew was relaxed from 3 pm to 6 pm but was extended up to 8 pm.
However, curfew was imposed again at 8 pm. Troops remained deployed in some sensitive areas.
Sources said Army would stay in all six districts even after lifting of day curfew till normalcy was completely restored.
Curfew in Kathua, Udhampur, Reasi and Rajouri was relaxed in the morning for two to four hours and the relaxation period continued to be extended till tonight. Curfew was imposed in the night.
In sensitive Doda district, curfew was relaxed for two hours from 4 pm to 6 pm in Bhaderwah, Thathri and Prem Nagar. Deputy Commissioner, Doda, Mubarak Singh said prohibitory orders under Section 144 CrPC remained imposed in entire Doda district. Army, CRPF and police were patrolling sensitive areas of Doda district, he added.
Traffic on Jammu-Srinagar, Jammu-Pathankot and Batote-Kishtwar National Highways and Jammu-Rajouri road remained suspended though some vehicles were seen plying there. Traffic was likely to be restored on all highways and major roads barring Batote-Kishtwar National Highway tomorrow morning.
No untoward incident was reported from any part of Jammu region during the day today including the period of curfew relaxation.
The National Highway, connecting the Kashmir valley with the rest of the country, remained closed for the fifth day today as a precautionary measure because of curfew and tension in different parts of Jammu region.
However, Army convoy and vehicles carrying Amarnath pilgrims from Jammu were allowed on the highway since yesterday morning.
Official sources confirmed that a number of vehicles, including carrying passengers and empty trucks and loaded with fruits were allowed from here late last night to cover the areas still under curfew before sunrise.
However, no vehicle from Kashmir or Jammu was allowed on the highway as a precautionary measure during the day.
The Highway was closed on Saturday following tension at several places on the other side of the Jawahar tunnel after clashes at Kishtwar.
A Traffic police official said that no vehicle was being allowed from Srinagar to Jammu.
Traffic will be resumed as and when a green signal is received from traffic police personnel deployed at different places on the highway, sources said.
This is for the second time the highway was closed because of protests and tension during the past one month.
Last month, people protested at several places on the highway after four people were killed and several others were injured after BSF allegedly opened fire in Gool area of Ramban district.
No curfew in Jammu today
There will be no day curfew in any part of Jammu region on Thursday excepting Kishtwar district on the occasion of Independence Day celebrations, authorities said tonight.
While curfew was lifted from Samba district and Sunderbani town of Rajouri today, it will be lifted from all other six districts, where it was imposed on August 10 and 11 after violence in Kishtwar from 5 am tomorrow to facilitate the celebrations of Independence Day.
However, Army, para-military forces and police will remain deployed in all sensitive towns of Jammu regions during the day to ensure peaceful celebrations, they said, adding that tight security arrangements have been made for August 15.
A decision on further imposition curfew during evening or night in parts of Jammu region would be taken after assessing the day’s situation by the authorities.
A decision on relaxation in curfew in Kishtwar for a couple of hours during Independence Day celebrations will be taken early tomorrow morning.
Agriculture Minister Ghulam Hassan Mir will hoist tricolor at helipad ground amid tight security. Only Government officials were expected to attend the ceremony though authorities have extended invitation to 20 other prominent persons.
Sources said curfew might be relaxed in some parts for one or two hours only during Independence Day function in Kishtwar.
Follow our WhatsApp channel