india

Updated: Nov 02, 2019 04:22 IST

A group of unidentified men set ablaze the car of a state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district and clashes broke out in Srinagar’s old city area on Friday, a day after Jammu and Kashmir formally transitioned from a full state to a union territory.

The police said two vehicles, Maruti Omnis, were set on fire at around 1 am at Gonigam village in Kulgam district.

“The vehicles belonged to Abid Khan and Imtiaz Hussain Bhat. The police have launched an investigation to identify the people behind the incident,’’ said a senior police officer in Kulgam on condition of anonymity.

Khan is the state general secretary of the BJP and was not present at the time of the incident. Party state spokesperson, Altaf Thakur, condemned the incident. “Due to the popularity of our leaders, some unidentified people are trying to trouble them,” he said. Khan was not available for comment.

The spot where the incident occurred is roughly 20 km from Katersoo village in the same district, where militants gunned down six Bengali labourers on Tuesday, sending shock waves across the migrant labourer community in the region.

On Thursday, Girish Chandra Murmu took oath as the first lieutenant governor of J&K while his Ladakh counterpart, RK Mathur, was sworn in in Leh, marking the formal transition of the former unified state to two union territories — the former with a legislative assembly and the latter without one.

The event was preceded by two days of unrest and violent protests during the visit of a group of European Union lawmakers. At least 40 incidents of stone pelting and violent protests were reported from the old city, home to roughly a third of Srinagar’s one-million-strong population. During the group’s visit, roads were deserted and most shops shut through the day.

The so-called civil curfew eased on Friday with many shops open in the morning hours and vendors lined up along arterial roads selling fruit, clothes and wares. Many cars were seen plying on arterial roads and groups of men and women crowded street-corner markets. Public transport, however, remained off the roads and big businesses were closed.

“I was waiting for the things to ease up for the past three days. I am here at Polo View [a flea market in the city centre] to buy warm clothes and quilts. The winter is almost here,” said Jan Mohammad, a resident of the city’s outskirts.

But the old city of Srinagar was rocked by clashes after Friday prayers despite authorities clamping restrictions on movement, prompting the police to use tear gas to dispel the crowd.

Mushtaq Ahmad, a local resident, said people started assembling in front of the 17th-century Khwaja Naqashband shrine for late afternoon prayers, but found the gates locked. “When more and more people assembled, police used tear gas,” said Ahmad. A second eyewitness said young men from the area hurled stones at the forces.

Every year, thousands of people offer late-afternoon congregational prayers at the shrine on this day (3rd of Rabi-ul-Awal, according to the Islamic calendar). The shrine is a few hundred metres from the grand mosque of Jamia Masjid, which has been closed since August 5 when the central government scrapped the region’s special status.

Superintendent of police (north city), Sajad Shah, confirmed that no prayers were allowed at the shrine but added that he would “find out” whether tear gas was used.