Shutdowns, protests disrupt normal life in Valley

The Roman calendar is facing an open challenge in the Kashmir Valley. Over the past one month, the calendar that is being dutifully followed by the Kashmiris is the Hurriyat (Geelani) calendar, which is nothing but a line-up of shutdowns and protests. In the process, the Hurriyat(G) has advertised that the Omar Abdullah government’s writ just does not run in the Valley.

Thanks to the Hurriyat(G) calendar, planned meticulously by second-rung leaders like Masrat Alam and publicised in leading local dailies for public convenience, schools and colleges are virtually forced to break into an unscheduled vacation to avoid any harm to their wards due to the heavy line-up of daily protests.

According to observers based in Kashmir, educational institutions, private businesses and private transport services barely ran for five to six days in July. Exams for MBBS students, scheduled to start in early July, had to be postponed three to four times, and it is only this week that they could begin.

The first Hurriyat(G) protest calendar issued on July 4 had marches and strikes planned for all but three days of the week. The second taken out on July 11 allowed two days of peaceful protests while civil curfew and marches were scheduled for the remaining days. The third calendar issued on July 16 had no normal working day, having laid down a schedule of non-stop protests starting with a strike post-2 pm on July 17.

The last calendar, taken out on July 24, left out Sunday as a strike-free day, leading to some schools staying open on that day. The festival of Shab-e-Barat on July 27 was also observed as a no-strike day, giving the public the rare gift of a second working day in a week.

Even before this week is over, the next Hurriyat(G) calendar will get pride of place in the widely-circulated local dailies, helping people plan whatever little work they can do in between the sit-ins and protest marches.

The implementation of the Hurriyat(G) calendar is nearly total in the Valley, given fears of violent backlash among locals if they fail to comply. Also, the smaller troublemaker groups have now hijacked the Hurriyat(G) agenda and are independently enforcing shutdowns and protests. For example, the Stonepelters Association, under which the regular stone pelters have organised themselves, has been going around enforcing the unusual calendar, threatening people and harming property in case of non-compliance.

While the Hurriyat(G)’s writ is defiantly enforced in the Valley, the Omar Abdullah government seems to have been reduced to a mute spectator. The government has, over the past month, helplessly watched the Kashmiri people put up with inconvenience as protests and sit-ins called by the Hurriyat(G) forced them to cancel work engagements. Some attempts have been made by the J&K police to locate Masrat Alam, the hardline Hurriyat leader who designs the calendar but remains elusive.

Thanks to the Hurriyat(G) calendars, normal life is paralysed in the Valley for the past one month, even though the separatists are apparently taking care to minimise the losses to traders as this would make them rise in protest.