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Pilgrim traffic on Baltal route suspended

Praveen Swami

Clashes continue; PDP threatens to pull out of coalition if land allotment is not scrapped

— Photo: AP

Pitched battle: Policemen battling protesters in Srinagar on Tuesday. Hundreds of people took to the streets to protest the killing of a local resident by police during demonstrations against the transfer of forest land to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board.

SRINAGAR: Violent protests against a land-use grant to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board continued on Tuesday, forcing suspension of pilgrim traffic to the mountain cave.

Ganderbal resident Mohammad Ashraf was critically injured when the police fired shots to disperse protesters in the central Kashmir town, leading to a stampede. Fifteen other protesters were injured.

Local residents said clashes broke out after anti-shrine board protesters ordered Ganderbal shopkeepers — many of whom serve pilgrim traffic — to down the shutters. An altercation erupted. When some protesters turned their anger on a police picket in the local bazaar, officers fired warning shots, leading to the stampede.

Unlike in Srinagar, where the protests have been spearheaded by secessionists linked to Islamist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the violence in Ganderbal is believed to have been led by local activists of the People’s Democratic Party. PDP leaders have threatened to pull out of the Jammu and Kashmir coalition government if orders allocating 39.9 hectares to the board are not withdrawn.

PDP leader attacked

Late in the evening, a mob attacked Forest Minister Qazi Mohammad Afzal, PDP leader responsible for signing the orders allowing the board use of forest land. Local residents told The Hindu that the attack was led by local National Conference cadre, who blamed Mr. Afzal for instigating violence in the town.

Mr. Afzal defeated the National Conference leader and former Minister of State for External Affairs, Omar Abdullah, to take the Ganderbal Assembly seat in 2002.

Until Monday night’s death in police firing, Islamists protesting the land allocation had drawn only limited support. Mr. Geelani’s demonstration on Monday, for example, brought together less than 400 protesters.

On Tuesday, the police in Srinagar fired shots in the air to disperse protesters mourning 37-year-old Feroze Rah, who was killed in mob clashes with the police on Monday. Small groups of protesters broke away from the main, several thousand-strong funeral procession, and attacked government offices and public transport. Businesses and offices in large parts of the city remained closed.

Fearing attacks on pilgrimage traffic on the popular Baltal route to the Amarnath shrine, the police have suspended movement on the route for the next two days. Officials in Srinagar, however, insisted that the suspension was unrelated to the incidents here and was forced by glacial movement at Sangam, blocking all routes to the cave. Local residents who spoke to The Hindu, however, disputed this claim.

Faltering dialogue

Meanwhile, efforts to bring about a dialogue between the Congress and its coalition partner registered little progress, as both parties are under intense pressure from their constituencies not to give ground on the communally charged debate.

PDP leaders have said they will withdraw support to the alliance government if the land grant made to the board is not revoked by June 30.

Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad failed to return from the inauguration of a school in the border district of Tangdhar in time for a scheduled morning meeting with his coalition partner and predecessor in office, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. Later, Mr. Sayeed and his daughter, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, flew to New Delhi to meet top government figures.

India’s official interlocutor on Jammu and Kashmir N.N. Vohra called on Mr. Sayeed for an hour-long meeting in the afternoon. Official sources told The Hindu that he asked Mr. Sayeed not to act in haste, suggesting that all parties use the coming week to explore possible via-media.

Mr. Vohra is scheduled to replace Lieutenant-General S.K. Sinha as Governor on Wednesday. He will also head the shrine board ex-officio.

Mr. Azad called a meeting of 14 Congress ministers, Union Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz, the former Congress president Peerzada Sayeed, and their sole non-PDP Cabinet partner, Independent legislator and Revenue Minister Hakim Mohammad Yasin.

Sources said the politicians were fully briefed on the Cabinet decisions which led to the grant of land-use rights to the board, in an effort to show that the PDP had concurred with the decision.

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