KL Report
Srinagar
This is the second consecutive time when Authorities have put restrictions in place to foil the Friday congregations in the central Mosques of the Srinagar city.
Authorities have imposed curfew or restrictions on movement of people in most parts of Kashmir Valley to foil plans of separatists to hold protests demanding handing over of the body of Parliament attack convict Mohammad Afzal Guru to his family.
Restrictions have been imposed in 11 police station areas of Srinagar city and some other towns of the Valley as a precautionary measure, a police spokesman said on Friday.
Although police try to avoid using the word ‘curfew’ for the restrictions, no pedestrian or vehicular movement is being allowed in the areas.
Similar restrictions banning the assembly of five or more people have been clamped in the northern towns of Sopore, Baramulla and Bandipora. Islamabad, Shopian, Pulwama and Kulgam towns in the southern Kashmir are also under siege and people are restricted to come out of their houses.
Hurriyat (G) chairman, Syed Ali Geelani and the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front JKLF, have asked people to stage protests on Friday against the hanging of parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. They also want the Indian government to hand over Afzal Guru’s body, buried in Delhi’s Tihar Jail, to his family.
Authorities fear violence after the Friday prayers in sensitive areas of the city. Police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel have been deployed in the affected areas in large numbers.
Coils of concertina wire have been placed to block traffic intersections in Old Srinagar to block passage of pedestrians and vehicles.
