Public transport services resume, more shops open in Kashmir

Public transport has resumed plying at many places in Kashmir and shops have been gradually reopening as more people are now carrying out their day to day activities giving a semblance of normalcy in the Valley despite a strike called by separatists.

Mini-buses, cabs and auto-rickshaws were plying in good numbers across the summer capital here leading to traffic snarls at some places.

"Even as there was a call for observing strike, public transport was plying in Srinagar and many other district headquarters of Kashmir," an official said, adding the inter-district transport has also improved.

Shops, fuel stations and other business establishments were open in some areas in the civil lines as well as in the outskirts of the city here, officials said.

 

Reports of shops being open as well as increased public transport plying on the roads were received from many other districts of the Valley, they said.

Vendors put up their stalls along TRC Chowk-Batamaloo axis through Lal Chowk city centre, they said. However, some other facets of life remained affected due to the strike.

While, annual board examinations were currently on, the attendance in schools and colleges remained affected.

Except for the past weekend, Kashmir has witnessed shutdown since July 8 when Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani was killed in an encounter with security forces.

The separatists, who have been issuing weekly protest programmes, have extended the strike till December 1, announcing two full days of relaxation on the weekend like the past week.

As many as 86 people, including two police personnel, have been killed and several thousand others injured in the ongoing unrest in the Valley.

Around 5000 security forces personnel have also been injured in the clashes.