Srinagar: One-way traffic will be allowed from Srinagar to Jammu on the Jammu and Kashmir highway on Tuesday, a traffic department official stated, as per a report by IANS.
“The highway is open for one-way traffic and vehicles will be allowed to move from Srinagar to Jammu today,” a traffic department official was quoted as having said in the report. “The highway has been fully decongested as all traffic from Jammu to Srinagar was cleared on Monday with all the Kashmir Valley-bound vehicles crossing the Jawahar Tunnel safely.”
The highway had been closed for seven days until February 12, after which the stock supply of essentials like edibles and petroleum products in the Valley stabilised.
On 14 February, a Scorpio car armed with explosives rammed into a CRPF convoy in Lethpora area along the Srinagar-Jammu highway in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district, killing 49 CRPF personnel. Following the news, militant outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) claimed responsibility of the attack.
Soon after the attack, Navjot Singh Sidhu, a minister in Captain Amarinder Singh’s Congress government in Punjab, asked whether an entire country (Pakistan) could be blamed for the acts of a few.
Sidhu, however, strongly condemned the Pulwama attack.
After the Pulwama attack, Kashmiris living in India have been facing xenophobia, hate, terminations and suspensions.
A mob threatened to set a Dehradun college on fire if the institute didn’t terminate a Kashmiri dean. Abid Kuchay, college Dean of the Alpine Institute has been terminated.
“The college asked for it. I agreed for the betterment of the college,” he said. Abid’s resignation has been asked for his role of getting Kashmir students admitted in the college.
Moreover, four Kashmiri students were suspended on Saturday by the National Institute of Medical Science (NIMS), Rajasthan for sharing a WhatsApp status in which they were allegedly celebrating the Pulwama attack which left 49 CRPF personnel dead.
The second-year students — Talveen Manzoor, Iqra, Zohra Nazir and Uzma Nazir — were suspended soon after they shared as a WhatsApp status allegedly celebrating the killings of the CRPF personnel in the attack
Earlier, Shridev Suman Subharti University in Dehradun suspended a Kashmiri student after his alleged WhatsApp chat regarding the Pulwama attack went viral.
Meanwhile, Aligarh Muslim University also suspended a Kashmiri student over a ‘highly objectionable tweet’.
Omar Saleem Peerzada, AMU PRO said: “We have come to know of the highly objectionable tweet. Taking immediate cognizance the student has been suspended by the university administration,” he said.
Moreover, 15-20 Kashmiri female students had locked themselves in a hostel room in Dehradun after a mob surrounded the campus area, demanding the management to ‘throw them out of their rooms’.
Shazia Hamid, one of the students, told Free Press Kashmir that she and other Kashmiri female students, fearing the mob, have locked themselves in a room.
Following Free Press Kashmir’s news story the women were provided safety by the Dehradun police who dispersed the crowd peacefully.
Earlier, former chief minister Omar Abdullah had appealed to the Home Minister of India Rajnath Singh to direct all state governments to take ‘special care of areas where Kashmiris as residing or studying.’
Following the reports of attacks on Kashmiris in various parts of India, Government of India on Saturday asked all the states to ensure safety and security of the students and people from Jammu and Kashmir.
