SRINAGAR, April 4: Former finance minister Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari on Thursday demanded immediate revocation of the anti-people and arbitrary order banning civilian traffic on Srinagar-Jammu highway for two days a week.

In a statement issued here, Bukhari said that prohibiting civilian traffic from Baramulla upto Udhampur via Srinagar, Qazigund, Banihal and Ramban tantamount to confining people of the state to their homes without any reasonable justification.

“This means the government of the day wants to enforce curfew for two days a week without bothering for the miseries it can cause to people. No civilized society on earth can tolerate this type of dictatorial approach,” Bukhari said, while urging the governor to review this order in the interest of public.

The former minister observed that the security forces must adopt other means of hassle free convoy movement without putting the people to immense inconvenience.  “Putting a blanket ban on civilian traffic is no answer to the concerns and requirements of security forces.  To mitigate the inconvenience to the civilians, the administration must evolve necessary mechanism to strike a balance and ensure that no civilian traffic is halted by the convoy movement in the state,” he added.

Bukhari said the traffic ban order would have perilous consequences for the state in view of lack of alternative routes and means of travel available to its people. “This ban has created a chaotic condition among masses. Elections and movement of convoys is nothing new to Kashmir. But one wonders why this decision has been taken without bothering for its consequences. The state should refrain from taking decisions that encroach on civil liberties. Or otherwise, this approach will add to already existing alienation among the people of the state,” he remarked.

Hurriyat (M) chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Thursday asked the government of Jammu and Kashmir to withdraw the order of closing down the Kashmir highway for two days in a week.

“Another anti-people dictatorial move of the government to close the national highway for two days which will cause great distress to people. Government should withdraw this diktat and stop punishing people of Kashmir,” Mirwaiz said in a tweet. 

Jammu and Kashmir government Wednesday announced that there shall be no movement of civilian traffic on the highway from Udhampur in Jammu till Baramulla in north Kashmir for two days every week to facilitate movement of forces for the upcoming parliamentary elections.

The closure of the highway has drawn severe criticism for all sections of the society.

Srinagar: To protest what they term as government’s apathy towards them, the Sikh community of Kashmir has threatened to not participate in upcoming parliamentary elections.

According to a report by Economic Times, the community leaders claim that neither central nor the state government has paid heed to their long pending demands of extension of Minority Community Act to the state and introduction of Punjabi language in the schools and colleges. 

Chairman of All Parties Sikh Coordination Committee Jagmohan Said that the community is facing discrimination for no fault of others. “We have decided to not participate in the Lok Sabha elections as a mark of protest. This our silent way of conveying that we are angry and have not been treated well,” He said.

Raina alleged that subsequent governments have always made false promises and ditched the community. He informed that there is a population of 3.2lakh Sikhs in the state, with around 80,000 in Kashmir alone.
“We have no representation in any power structure. We were given some jobs under non migrant minority category, which was again taken away by a different community with the help of PDP government,” Manmeet Singh of United Sikh Forum told ET.He complained that all the dispensations showed step motherly attitude towards the Sikh community. 

Srinagar: National conference leader Omar Abdullah on Thursday hit out at PDP president Mehbooba Mufti and BJP president Amit Shah saying both of them were lying about AFSPA.

Taking to social networking site Twitter the former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir  wrote: “Why are @AmitShah & the PDP lying to people about AFSPA? PDP has no intention of doing anything with AFSPA & BJP didn’t break the coalition because of AFSPA. This is from Ms Mufti’s Assembly speech as CM in Feb 2018, just a few months before the BJP unceremoniously dismissed our elected CM via a phone call from the Governor.”

Omar was reacting on the separate statements of BJP President and Peoples Democratic Party on  Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFPSA).