Heavy showers lashed the Kashmir valley on Wednesday, inundating roads and bringing calm to streets of the region a day after protesters defied separatist appeal for relaxation and held widespread demonstrations.
The rainfall began early morning and continued throughout the day causing a considerable drop in the temperature and cloaking the region in cold wintry weather.
Many roads in Srinagar, the state’s summer capital, were inundated by rainwater as police and paramilitary personnel imposing curfew and restrictions took shelter of covered pavements.
The state government imposed curfew in many parts of Srinagar a day after removing deployment of security forces and lifting curfew from the volatile old city neighbourhoods.
“A strict curfew is in place and no one is being allowed to move outside. A large number of police and CRPF men are deployed on the road,” said Tanveer Ahmad, a resident of Khanyar locality of Srinagar’s old city.
Srinagar’s old city, which had remained under curfew for 17 consecutive days since the beginning of the ongoing unrest, witnessed widespread protests yesterday when the state government lifted the curfew.
Most areas in the city and in other districts of the region had continued shutdown and protests despite the separatist appeal for relaxation. The Valley is in the midst of an unrest that was triggered by the killing of militant commander Burhan Wani on July 8 evening.
The downpour on Wednesday, however, brought calm to the seething streets of the region. The roads were empty of traffic and markets were closed as the unrest has shown no signs of an end.
Rain brings down Temperature, Tempers across Valley
