Shutdown in Kashmir Valley against Pandit zones

A shutdown was observed on Saturday across the Kashmir Valley in protest against plans to create separate zones for the resettlement of Kashmiri Pandits.

While private vehicles were not affected, shops, businesses and educational institutions were closed for the day.

Saturday’s shutdown was the first for the six-week-old PDP-BJP coalition government . While security had been strengthened across the valley, the police said there were no reports of clashes .

The controversy over separate zones for Pandits started on Tuesday after Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed assured Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh that his government would “acquire and provide land at the earliest for composite townships in the Valley.”

While the PDP and the Chief Minister have maintained that the composite townships would not be exclusively for Pandits, the separatists and the civil society believe that the party has been ambiguous.

“They adopted a soft stance towards the freedom sentiment in Kashmir but in the end they had no qualms in embracing the right wing BJP,” senior Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani told The Hindu. “They always say one thing and do another and this time it is no different.”

The call for Saturday’s shutdown was also given by JKLF chairman Yasin Malik, who was detained by the police on Friday when he led a protest rally in Lal Chowk.

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Source:Thehindu