Undeclared curfew, clashes in Srinagar over Moharram procession

100 processionists detained, 10 injured in ding-dong clashes

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Dec 4: Nearly a hundred processionists were detained by Police and about a dozen sustained minor injuries in ding-dong clashes when authorities imposed undeclared curfew in Civil Lines areas under five Police stations and groups of Shia mourners violated restrictions on occasion of 8^th of Moharram in this capital city. Like in last 22 years of separatist armed movement, authorities have decided not to permit any Moharram processions in Srinagar Civil Lines in Kashmir valley while quoting “security reasons”.

Sole licensee of the traditional 8^th Moharram Zuljanah and Alam procession in Srinagar, Yaadgar-e-Hussain Committee Guru Bazar Shaheed Gunj, which is not led by any prominent religious or political leader, had failed to get District Magistrate’s permission for the procession like in all 22 previous years of armed strife in Valley. It had, consequently, decided to organize a local mourning session at Guru Bazar wherefrom the procession used to originate every year on 8^th Moharram since the middle of last century till 1989. Thousands of Shia Muslim mourners, alongwith a number of people from majority sect and even non-Muslims used to participate in the procession to commemorate the martyrdom of Hazrat Imam Hussain and his 71 followers at Karbala nearly 1400 years back.

Main procession of the solemn month of Moharram used to come out on 10^th of Moharram, known as Aashoora, alternately under the auspices of Aga Sahab Budgam’s Anjuman-e-Sharee Shiaan and Maulvi Iftikhar Hussain Ansari’s All Jammu & Kashmir Shia Association. Like the procession of 8^th Moharram, Ashoora procession too has not been permitted by the authorities in Civil Lines of Srinagar since 1989. Organisers have consequently changed its route and restricted the main Ashoora procession to the Shia-dominated localities of Zabibal, Lalbazar and Hassanabad.

Even as the organizers have been consistently applying, authorities have been denying permission to either of these religious processions since 1989 while quoting “security reasons”.

Like in last several years, authorities today imposed undeclared curfew in areas falling under jurisdiction of five Police Stations of Maisuma, Kothibagh, Ram Munshi Bagh, Kralkhud and Habbakadal. Thick Police and CRPF columns had put in place Concertina wire barriers and no pedestrian or civilian vehicular movement was allowed in Civil Lines.

Notwithstanding these restrictions, thin groups of Shia mourners appeared at several places in their attempts to take out the procession. However, Police and CRPF swung immediately into action and forced dispersal of the youth with baton charge, tearsmoke and pepper gun shelling. In all, 10 processions sustained minor injuries and nearly a hundred of them were detained by Police for the day. Police confirmed detention of 60 persons and claimed that they were taken into custody when they violated the restrictions and turned the religious event into a political show with pro-Azadi and anti-national slogans.

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