Article 35-A: Life returns to normal after two-days of strike in Kashmir

Srinagar: Life returned to normal on Saturday after remaining crippled for two days due to strike called by separatists against alleged attempts being made to abrogate Article 35-A.Restrictions, which were imposed in the downtown and Shehar-e-Khas (SeK) as a precautionary measure on Monday, were lifted after two-days.

The Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL), comprising Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Moulvi Omar Farooq and Mohammad Yaseen Malik, had called for two-day strike from Thursday in view of Supreme Court (SC) hearing a plea challenging the validity of Article 35-A. 

However, the Apex court on Friday, while hearing a number of writ petitions challenging the Article, adjourned the case till January 2019. The article empowers the Jammu and Kashmir state's legislature to define "permanent residents" of the state and provides special rights and privileges to the permanent residents of the state.

Shops and business establishments are doing normal business and traffic on all routes was plying normally in summer capital, Srinagar, and other major towns and tehsil headquarters in the valley. All the shops were open in the main business hubs in civil lines, including historic Lal Chowk, Gonikhan, Residency Road, Maulana Azad Road, Mahraj Bazar, Batamaloo, Iqbal Park, Dalgate, Regal Chowk and Budshah Chowk.

The situation was no different in the uptown, where shops and business establishments reopened after two days of strike. 

Reports of normalcy were also received from other parts of the Valley, including Baramulla, Sopore, Bandipora and Pattan in north Kashmir and Anantnag, Pulwama and Shopian in south Kashmir.Business and other activities also resumed in the twin central Kashmir districts of Budgam and Ganderbal.(UNI)