SRINAGAR: On the first day of the holy month of Ramadan, Kashmir Valley showed a semblance of normal life after nine of harshest ever curfew and violence.
Thousands of Kashmiris thronged shopping areas yesterday as authorities lifted a nine-day-old curfew in Muslim-majority areas in troubled Indian Kashmir, coinciding with the start of the Islamic fasting month.
The move came as Islamic separatists vowed to press on with peaceful protests calling for an end to Indian rule over the predominantly Muslim Himalayan territory.
Shops in summer capital Srinagar and other towns reopened after days of violence, coinciding with the start of Ramadan.
For most part of the day, the locals were seen thronging the markets to buy essential items, whose availability in the curfew period was severely hit, adding to the curfew woes of the people.
Separatist leaders asked shops and businesses to stay open until 4 p.m. and then join in a two-day peaceful protests from yesterday, said Masarat Aalam, chief spokesman of the Jammu-Kashmir Coordination Committee.
The committee comprises Muslim separatist leaders and representatives of businesses, lawyers and government employees.
However, normal activity started petering out early in response to the call given by the Coordination Committee, which had asked shopkeepers to down their shutters at 4 p.m.
The markets started closing early in the evening and traffic thinned out on the streets and it was almost standstill by 6 p.m.
An important meeting of the Coordination Committee which comprises representatives from both groups of the separatist, All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) is being held today which will be chaired by Mirwaiz Maulvi Omar Farooq to chalk out future programs.
Mirwaiz, Syed Ali Shah Geelani and JKLF Chairman Yasin Malik were released by the state government yesterday.
