Srinagar: Authorities Monday imposed restrictions on pedestrian and vehicular traffic in and around Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir as a separatist rally ‘Quit Kashmir’ was scheduled.
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Heavy deployment of police and paramilitary force of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) was made in Srinagar’s Lal Chowk area to prevent pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik from taking out a rally here.
Malik announced that he would start JKLF’s ‘Quit Kashmir’ movement Monday to seek attention of the international authorities on Kashmir and shift focus away from the debate over Article 370 of the Indian Constitution.
The JKLF chief told reporters that the debate on whether Article 370 that gives special status to the state should stay, is aimed at shifting the discourse from separatism to the centre-state relationship with regard to Kashmir.
On May 31, he claimed that the design behind the article 370 debate raked up by a union minister was to change the Kashmir discourse from independence to centre-state relations.
“There is a design behind the Indian junior minister’s statement that article 370 would be revoked. There is a storm of debate over this in India and also in Kashmir. Everywhere in Kashmir people are discussing the fate of article 370,” he had said earlier.
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While security forces have arrested a number of JKLF leaders to prevent the rally, Malik and many of his party leaders and activists have already gone underground.
Police also sealed the Maisuma locality adjacent to the Lal Chowk where the JKLF headquarters and Malik’s residence are.