Leading politician Mirwaiz Umar Farooq led the procession of thousands of Kashmiris through the streets of downtown Srinagar.
The lockdown was lifted in Srinagar late Friday and other parts of Indian Kashmir to enable people to celebrate the Shab-e-Meraj.
Indian police and paramilitary forces have been struggling to control a wave of protests in the Kashmir valley after being accused of killing 15 civilians -- many of them teenagers -- in less than a month.
Authorities quickly re-imposed a curfew in various areas of the Indian-controlled Kashmir on Saturday after fresh clashes broke out between anti-India protesters and government forces, police said.
Protests were also reported from Srinagar, Sopore, Baramulla, Islamabad and Kakpora and Hazratbal localities.
Police and paramilitary soldiers fired tear gas and resorted to baton-charge to disperse demonstrators from various areas of Srinagar.
As part of the new clamp down, thousands of troops patrolled Srinagar’s nearly deserted streets on Saturday as most shops and businesses remained closed. The region’s nearly 60 newspapers were unable to publish for a third day.
Editors of the valley-based newspapers in the Indian Kashmir decided to suspend publication of newspapers till the occupation authorities issue sufficient number of curfew passes for the staff members and distributors. They issued a joint statement said that earlier the authorities used to impose undeclared curfew and now it had imposed undeclared ban on media. The government sent in the army to quell the protests for the first time this week, part of efforts to prevent them from spiraling out of control.
The tight curfew, initially introduced on Wednesday, was lifted late on Friday across the Indian-administered region for 24 hours to allow residents to observe Shab-e-Meraj. Taking advantage of the brief reprieve, people swarmed grocery shops to buy food and other essential items. In various city areas, people carrying black and green protest flags chanted “Indian forces leave Kashmir” as they marched peacefully through the streets. Authorities removed police and paramilitary soldiers from these areas to avoid clashes.
“Our civil disobedience and peaceful marches will continue until India withdraws its military and paramilitary soldiers from populated areas,” said Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, a key leader who led the march. Only about 1,000 devotees visited the revered Dargah Hazratbal shrine to offer prayers on the occasion of the Shab-e-Meraj.
Police laid razor wire and erected steel barricades around the shrine to stop any protests.
Chairman of the All Parties Hurriyet Conference Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has termed the current situation as martial law. The APHC chairman pointed out that the curfew and other restrictions had led to severe shortages of medicine, food and essential items. He also denounced curbs on the free movement of media persons, describing it as attack on freedom of press.
The Kashmir Media Service reported that the Kashmir Press Guild, Kashmir Press Association, Kashmir Photog-raphers and Kashmir Video Journalists Association also denounced curbs on media by the occupation authorities.
The protesters also burnt an effigy symbolising the UPA government, KMS said.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 11th, 2010.
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