Valley shuts, restrictions in Srinagar area during PM visit

Srinagar: Kashmir Valley was shut on Saturday whereas the security forces enforced a security clampdown in many parts of summer capital Srinagar to hold back a protest rally called by an alliance of separatist leaders at City’s central square during Prime Minister, Narendra Modi’s, visit.

The authorities had earlier ordered closure of all educational institutions across the restive Valley, suspended rail and mobile internet services and placed key separatist leaders under house arrest or they were taken in preventive custody by the police. A tight security umbrella had been put up for the Prime Minister’s visit with thousands of security personnel in riot gear out on the streets to ensure a peaceful day while as Special Protection (SPG) had taken over the venues visited by Mr. Modi to inaugurate or lay foundation stone of a set of developmental projects in Srinagar, Jammu and Leh.

‘Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL)’, an alliance of key separatist leaders, had asked the people to march on Srinagar’s historic central square Lal Chowk (Red Square) to register their protest against Mr. Modi’s visit and “show to the world what we the people of Kashmir stand for”. Kashmir’s chief Muslim cleric and separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was detained by the police when he along with his supporters tried to march on Lal Chowk after breaching police cordon around his residence in Srinagar’s Nigeen area.

Ahead of Prime Minister’s visit, the Indian and Pakistani border guards exchanged mortar and small and automatic weapons fire along the Jammu-Sialkot border, leaving eleven people including ten civilians and a trooper dead and more than two dozen others injured on both sides.