The Kashmiri traders recently met BJP MLA from Mussoorie Ganesh Joshi requesting for help. (Express file photo)
At a peace meet called by Mussoorie administration Monday, the local traders’ association agreed to let traders from Kashmir continue with their businesses. Local traders and right-wing groups had earlier demanded that Kashmiri traders, who sell garments from rented shops, leave the town.
The meeting was held two days before the 11-month contract between Kashmiri traders and their shopowners would end. It was attended by the shopowners, president of Mussoorie Traders & Welfare Association Rajat Aggarwal, members of right-wing groups, politicians and Kashmiri traders. The meeting was called after the Kashmiri traders wrote to local BJP MLA Ganesh Joshi and sought his intervention.
SDM Minakshi Patwal, who along with Circle Officer Jaya Baluni, presided over the meeting, said: “Local traders finally agreed to let the Kashmiris continue with their businesses.”
The Sunday Express had reported about the traders’ body asking the Kashmiri traders to leave. The same day, Aggarwal met traders from the Valley on the issue. Kashmiri trader Altaf Hussain Khowja (34) said, “He (Aggarwal) told us today that the traders’ association will not bother us anymore.”
Trouble between local traders and those from J&K began in June last year, when India lost to Pakistan in the Champions Trophy final. Some local residents alleged that a group of Muslim youths raised “Pakistan Zindabad” slogans following which local traders demanded that the Kashmiri traders leave.
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