Convoys of security forces not allowed on Srinagar-Jammu highway today
The convoys of security forces will not be allowed to pass through the Srinagar-Jammu national highway on Monday, a police spokesman said on Sunday.
Stating no reason for the advisory, the spokesman said the decision is believed to have taken in view of the third death anniversary of former Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani on Monday.
"No security forces convoys shall be allowed from both sides of the highway on Monday," the police spokesman said.
Wani, once a poster boy of militancy in the Valley, was killed in an encounter with security forces on July 8, 2016, in Kokernag area of south Kashmir's Anantnag district.
Meanwhile, the BSF launched a mega exercise to fortify the 'anti-infiltration grid' along the Pakistan border in Punjab and Jammu. The act mobilised its entire senior field brass, thousands of troops and machinery deployed in these forward areas.
The operation, codenamed 'Sudarshan', was launched on July 1 and will cover the entire over 1,000-kms length of the India-Pakistan International Border.
While Jammu shares about 485-kms of the sensitive IB with Pakistan, about 553-kms of the front is in Punjab. Further, it runs down towards Rajasthan and Gujarat on India's western flank.
Omar Abdullah slams Governor Satya Pal Malik over civilian traffic restriction on highway
National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah Sunday said it was the "height of incompetence and laziness" that the Governor SP Malik-led administration required restriction on movement of civilian vehicles on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway for the security of Amarnath pilgrims.
Abdullah, the former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, said the governor's administration was the only administration in 30 years that has required the closure of the highway.
"It's not that we are unconcerned about yatri security, far from it. It's that the administration of Governor Malik is the only administration in 30 years that has required the closure of the highway/railway line to protect yatris & that's the height of incompetence & laziness," he tweeted.
Abdullah was responding to Malik's remarks that the people of Kashmir should bear such restrictions as it was a matter of security of pilgrims.
Reacting to the restriction, NC leaders Hasnain Masoodi and Akbar Lone decried the restriction, saying that the "diktat" will put the public to undue duress.
"The diktat will hamper the economic activity of traders. The highway is no less than an artery, it is our life line. It is not just the economic activity that will suffer with the ban but patients too. How can they reach hospitals? How can students and working class move to and fro?" Masoodi, the MP from Anantnag, said.
Meanwhile, Lone, the MP from Baramulla, said the move will inadvertently hit the movement of civilian traffic on the highway.
"The sole national highway connecting Srinagar with the rest of country already suffers from intermittent blockages due to the vagaries of weather. The diktat of putting restrictions on the vehicular movement if persists will put the public to undue duress.
"The step is bound to hamper the easy movement of tourist inflow to Kashmir. Moreover, the diktat will affect the traders by spoiling Kashmir bound perishable items and vice versa," Lone said.
Authorities in Jammu and Kashmir have barred civilian traffic on Qazigund-Nashri stretch of the Srinagar-Jammu national highway for five-and-a-half hours from 10 am to 3:30 pm in order to allow incident-free passage to vehicles carrying Amarnath pilgrims.
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