Srinagar, August 29 : After 51 days, curfew was today lifted from Kashmir, except for few police station areas, but normal life continued to be hit by the strike called by separatists.
Clashes were reported from a number of places in Srinagar city and parts of Budgam district but nobody was hurt in these incidents, police said. “Curfew has been lifted from Kashmir except from Pulwama town and the areas in Srinagar falling under the jurisdiction of police stations M R Gunj and Nowhatta,” police said.
The curbs were lifted following improvement in the situation, a police official said.
“However, the security forces will remain deployed in strength in sensitive areas of the Valley to maintain law and order,” the official said.
Curfew was clamped in entire Valley on July 9 following violence in the aftermath of Wani’s killing in an encounter in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district a day earlier.
The violence has left 68 people, including two cops, dead and several thousand injured. While public transport continued to be off roads, there was increased movement of private cars and auto-rickshaw.
However, schools, colleges and other educational institutions and shops remained closed due to the strike called by separatists groups.
The attendance in government offices also showed upward trend with majority of employees reporting for work. The banks were also open and witnessed massive rush of customers as soon as they opened.
Mobile internet continued to remain suspended in the entire Valley, where the outgoing facility on prepaid mobiles remained barred.
During the day, groups of miscreants pelted stones on security forces at Chattabal, Kani Kadal, Khanyar and Batamaloo areas of Srinagar, the police official said.
The security forces used tear gas to chase the protestors but no one was hurt in these incidents, the official said. He said reports of clashes between stone-pelters and security forces were also received from Chadoora, Kremshora and Mazhama areas of Budgam district.
The separatist camp, which is spearheading the agitation in the Valley over the civilian killings during the protests against Wani’s killing, has extended the strike call in the Valley till September 1.
No blanket ban on pellet guns, but to be used ‘rarely’
Pellet guns, which are being used by security forces for crowd control in Jammu and Kashmir, will not be completely banned but will be fired in “rarest of rare cases”, a top government official said today.
Senior government functionaries have arrived at this conclusion after extensive consultations with security forces and examining the ground realities in Kashmir Valley.
The option of firing pellet guns will remain but it will be used only in rarest of rare cases, the official said.
The government is facing severe criticism for using the pellet guns for crowd control in Kashmir Valley as the weapon has caused large-scale injuries in the 51-day unrest following killing of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani on July 8.
During his two-day visit to Kashmir on August 24-25, Home Minister Rajnath Singh had said an alternative to pellet guns will be given to security forces in the coming days.
“In the coming few days, we will give an alternative to the pellet guns. These guns were earlier considered non-lethal but some incidents have taken place... We formed an expert committee a month ago which was expected to give report in two months but it will be coming very soon,” he had said.
The expert panel, set up by the Home Ministry to find an alternative to pellet guns, is believed to have zeroed in on ‘PAVA shells’, a chilli-based ammunition, which is less lethal and immobilises the target temporarily. The committee held a demonstration of the newly-developed shells at a test field earlier this week and gave the thumbs up for use by security forces for crowd control and during protests like those being witnessed in the Kashmir Valley in place of the pellet guns which have caused grievous injuries and large-scale blinding.
The ‘PAVA shells’, as per the blueprint prepared in this regard and accessed by PTI, were under trial for over a year at the Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, a Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) laboratory in Lucknow, and its full development has come at a time when Kashmir is on the boil.
Sources close to the committee said it has favoured ‘PAVA shells’ as an alternative to pellet guns and has recommended that the Tear Smoke Unit (TSU) of the BSF in Gwalior should be tasked with bulk production of the shells “immediately”, with the first lot not of less than 50,000 rounds.
