April 04
Skinder Gull
Abid Rashid owns a tea stall near Sangam on the strategic 300 Kilometer highway connecting Jammu with Srinagar, the highway also connects some major towns of the Kashmir valley, including Islamabad (anantnag), Pampore, Awantipora, Sangam with Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu Kashmir.
Abid looks as vehicles of Indian Army do rounds of the national highway everyday awaiting customers, hoping for them to arrive from somewhere, but they rarely do. “Since 2016, business has seen a sharp decline in Kashmir as Military activity around the Highway has increased manifolds, people prefer not to stop their vehicles, at the fear of being beaten up by forces always patrolling this Highway,” Abid says.
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To the worst of our fear, the Government has imposed a ban on vehicular movement on the Highway for two days, Abid told The Kashmiriyat. The Government issued an order that no civilian traffic movement will be allowed on the 300-km long National Highway on Sunday and Wednesday from 4 am to 5 pm every week till May 31, 2019.
The decision is expected to hit the business community, Speaking to Free Press Kashmir, the leadership for the business community which comprises of around 5 Lakh traders from the valley, said that they are of the opinion that the closure of NH for two days will have severe ramifications on their business.
“For two days, no one will be able to do any business. The NH is a lifeline for our trade. We already face issues in winters. Now, the addition of these two days weekly will cause losses and affect our trade,” says Aijaz Ahmad, Publicity Chief of Kashmir Traders and Manufacturers Federation.
Apart from the business community, students of various schools, colleges and Universities have to everyday reach Srinagar and Awantipora and various other places via the only road available, the National Highway. “It is quite obvious that people will defy the dictate, nobody will follow, but it is shameful how schools have not even been given a prior notice or informed what to do under such circumstances,” Raashid Dar, a private school teacher from Awantipora located on the highway told The Kashmiriyat.
Zaffar Ahmed, a student who travels everyday from Islamabad (anantnag) township feels that the ban is worse than Hitler’s Nazism. ‘We have never had such bans, not even during the Kargil war, never for the past thirty years, i have to travel everyday to Kashmir university in Srinagar, how will i die, they have put our careers on stake.”
The health sector of Kashmir is expected to be hit too, as hundreds of patients from the South Kashmir districts are referred to Srinagar hospitals almost everyday for immediate medical attention and extensive care. “The government order to close national highway for civilian movement on Wednesdays and Sundays is invariably going to jeopardize the patient care and will increase morbidity and mortality in patients,” President Doctors Association of Kashmir, Dr Suhail Naik said.
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Mohammed Subhan, an ambulance driver from Islamabad (anantnag) told The Kashmiriyat that it is always tough moving on the highway at the time the Army convoy is moving, “they do not even give side to ambulances, patients who need immediate medical care are always at a risk of dying on the way to hospital,” he said.
There have been accusations of excesses against the Government Forces deployed on the National Highway, two days post the Pulwama attack on 14 February in which 49 CRPF men were killed, the troopers made three men kneel down on their knees and hit their heads with gun butts.
On Tuesday, the forces thrashed a group of students which included a minor girl after they allegedly barged into a school bus and thrashed the students to pulp, also ambulances and school buses are stopped during convoy movement for hours after Indian Home Ministry passed an order to stop traffic during the convoy movement on the National Highway.
There have been allegations that many shoppers and drivers were thrashed on the 300 Kilometer long highway that connects Srinagar with Jammu.
Mehbooba Mufti, the former chief Minister of Jammu Kashmir termed the government order to ban civilian movement on Kashmir highway ‘a diktat of Martial law.’ “Last I checked, we were a democracy. But this sounds like a diktat of Martial Law.After bringing Kashmir to the brink, the administration is adamant on ensuring collective punishment for Kashmiris.” She wrote on her twitter.