Has demonetisation stopped stone pelting, curbed terror financing in J&K?

A major reason behind decline in violence was that the 'money channels' of inciting violence have been sealed, said officials

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has hailed the government's demonetisation decision and said it has let to decline in stone-pelting incidents in Jammu and Kashmir. 

"Earlier, there were rates: Rs 500 for stone pelting (on security forces in Kashmir) and Rs 1,000 for doing something else. PM has brought terror funding to zero," Parrikar said.

"In the last few days after PM's daring move there hasn't been stone pelting on security forces. I congratulate PM for it," Parrikar said.

According to a report in Deccan Herald, the incidents of stone pelting have declines in the Valley ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi scrapped  Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes across the country.

 

While police handouts on the situation in the Valley stated that no incidents of stone-pelting were reported from anywhere in the past few days, officials said a major reason behind the sudden decline in violence was that the "money channels" of inciting violence have been sealed.

In the past, several complaints had cropped up that separatists were paying stone-pelters and other anti-national elements in big currency notes. Apart from taking on corruption, black money; the step by the Modi government has resulted in peace and calm in the Valley.

Security analysts believe that Kashmir will remain largely calm in the coming days as miscreants will run short of money to keep their network operational. 

For the last four months, the Valley was brought to a standstill but now things are falling back into place with people carrying out their daily chores, schools being opened and students appearing for exams.

Barring a few law and order incidents at some places, hundreds of vendors put up their stalls at the weekly flea-market in the city on Sunday while banks across Kashmir witnessed a rush of customers in view of the demonitisation of 500 and 1000 currency notes, bringing some semblance of normalcy in the unrest-hit Valley.

Normalcy ceased to exist in  Kashmir due to unrest triggered by the killing of Hizbul Majhideen militant Burhan Wani since July 8.

However, there has been increased movement of people and public transport, except buses, in Srinagar  in the last month.  Apart from private vehicles, auto-rickshaws and inter- district cabs were also plying in large numbers.

Defying separatists' call for protest, 95 per cent students appeared for class 12th board exams in Kashmir on Monday. About 94.88 per cent of the total 31,964 students appeared in the examination, an official of Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education (BOSE), which conducts the examinations, said.

The official said the overall attendance of the students was up by 2.56 per cent from 2015.

Over 480 centres have been set up for about 48,000 candidates for Class XII board examinations across Kashmir division, the official said, adding that the students who opted for the sixth paper appeared for the test on Monday.

Massive security arrangements were put in place across the Valley for the smooth conduct of the examination.

The class 10 board exams begun on Tuesday and as many as 550 exam centres have been established for 5,5000 candidates.

Schools in the Valley went on a two-week summer holiday on July 1 but could not resume functioning due to the unrest which was triggered by the killing of Wani along with his two associates in an encounter with security forces in a village in Kokernag area of south Kashmir's Anantnag district on July 8.

The unrest has left 85 persons dead and thousands injured while hundreds of people including students were booked under Public Safety Act (PSA) for participating in the protests.

The official decried the burning of schools, saying it should not have happened. As many as 32 schools have been targeted by unknown persons since the unrest began in Kashmir on July 8.

The separatists have been issuing weekly protest programmes since the killing of Wani in an alleged police encounter in July in the Valley.

As many as 85 people, including two police men, have been killed and several thousand others injured in the ongoing unrest in the state. Around 5,000 security forces personnel have also been injured in the clashes.

Adding to the people's woes, many ceasefire violations have also been reported along the International Border. A total of 26 persons, including 14 security personnel, have been killed in the cross-border firing.