Exams postponed, train services suspended as tension continues in Kashmir

Authorities have decided to close all educational institutions and postpone exams scheduled for Wednesday as tension continued in the Kashmir Valley. Heavy security deployment is also in place to maintain law and order.

india Updated: Apr 04, 2018 13:30 IST
Policemen hang on to an armoured vehicle during a shutdown on the outskirts of Srinagar, on April 3, 2018.
Policemen hang on to an armoured vehicle during a shutdown on the outskirts of Srinagar, on April 3, 2018.(AP Photo)

Security forces have been heavily deployed in Srinagar and other sensitive places in Kashmir to maintain peace,and law and order on Wednesday, officials said, even though separatists did not call for a shutdown.

Authorities decided to close all educational institutions and postpone exams scheduled for the day as tension continued in the Valley.

Train services have also been suspended for the third consecutive day.

Traffic on the otherwise busy Srinagar-Sonamarg road remained suspended for the second day.

The restriction on movement of people was put in place in the wake of agitations and a strike call by separatists after the encounters in Jammu and Kashmir’s Sophian and Anantnag districts.

Mobile internet services remained suspended in four south Kashmir districts as well as in Ganderbal district in central Kashmir.

Though there was no shutdown call for Wednesday, separatists, under the banner of Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) headed by Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik, asked people to march to Shopian to express solidarity with the families who lost their loved ones in the three encounters between militants and security forces on Sunday.

Twenty people including 13 militants, four civilians and three soldiers were killed in south Kashmir in three gunfights on Sunday.

Geelani and Mirwaiz have been placed under house arrest while Malik has been lodged in Srinagar central jail to prevent their participation in protests and marches.

Shops, public transport and other businesses remained mostly shut in Srinagar and other major towns in the Kashmir Valley.

Private transport, however, moved in uptown and outskirts in Srinagar.

A 23-year-old youth killed in clashes with the security forces in Kangan town was buried in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

A complete protest shutdown marred normal life in Ganderbal district following the death of the youth.

The district magistrate of Ganderbal has ordered a magisterial probe into the youth’s killing while police also ordered a departmental enquiry to ascertain facts about the incident.

Clashes had broken out in Kangan on Tuesday immediately after the youth’s body was taken there.