Police on Thursday morning barred the entry of several vehicles, carrying essential supplies like milk and veggies, into city.
Witnesses said that around three dozen vehicles carrying milk and vegetables remained stationed at police station Parimpora on the outskirts of Srinagar city.
They said that police stopped the vehicles, which ferry the supply from villages and peripheries to the city population which has remained under siege for the 41st consecutive day on Thursday.
“Police stopped all the vehicles carrying milk or vegetables for the city at Parimpora. I am stuck here since 6 am,” said a milkman over phone to Kashmir Post.
Another vegetable supplier said their vehicles carrying vegetable supplies were also barred to moving ahead of the Parimpora police station.
When asked why the supplies were being stopped, a senior police official said that they have been ordered to enforce strict curfew. “…and we are obeying those orders.”
Expressing serious concern over the extension of curfew in besieged Kashmir to day and night hours and latest blockade on fuel supplies to the Valley, the Kashmir Economic Alliance Chairman Haji Mohammed Yasin Khan on Thursday accused the government of resorting to worst ever “oppression”.
“As if continued cycle of killing of innocent civilians and wounding thousands of others was not enough the government has furthered the curfew and blocked fuel supplies to make people suffer more. This is neither Insaniyat nor Jamhuriyat but Yazidiyat, where the tyrant rulers are deriving sadistic pleasure out of their aggression on the unarmed civilians peacefully fighting for their rights,” Khan who also heads the Kashmir Traders and Manufacturers Federation said in a handout today.
Taking a dig at the Peoples Democratic Partly led government, Khan said instead of feeling guilty for having “broken all records of rights abuse in Kashmir”, the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti during her August 15 speech “justified the killings and other oppressions only to please her masters in Nagpur.”
He said day and night curfew has pushed the people of Kashmir to starvation while the blockade of oil supplies will only worsen the situation. “From milk to vegetables to medicines and oil, nothing is being allowed to be sold even in the hours when Hurriyat conference announces relaxation. By countering the Hurriyat calendar, the government is only deepening the crises,” Khan said.
He said there was a shortage of baby food as well. “We are being pushed to starvation and death from all sides by this government,” Khan said.
He alleged the police was ransacking the shops and hawkers who try to open their outlets during the relaxation by the separatists. “The trader community is being pushed to wall,” Khan said.
Referring to the latest killing of a youth in Pampore, Khan said the government has opened account even on “extra judicial murders.” “After massacres as have been happening we have to face extra judicial murders,” Khan said.
Appealing the people of Kashmir particularly the trade fraternity to be united in this hour of crises, he said some forces were trying to create wedge. “Let’s be united for our strength,” he said.
While condemning the “continued bloodbath”, Khan expressed serious concern over arrest spree. “Youth are being arrested and police stations are turning into extortion centers.”
He also condemned the police raid on the Hurriyat headquarters at Raj Bagh.
Seeking intervention of international community particularly the rights groups into Kashmir crises, Khan condemned the continued detention of JKLF Chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik.
Khan reiterated that Kashmir was a dispute and needs to be resolved. “It’s high time for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to accept Kashmir as a dispute and take requisite measures to douse the blaze than drag Kashmir to further crises,” Khan said. “New Delhi must understand that Kashmir is a resilient nation, the more you suppress, the more we rise.”
