Shutdown enters 52nd day in Kashmir Valley
Srinagar: Normal life remained affected in the Kashmir Valley for the 52nd consecutive day on Wednesday with public transport off the roads even as few vendors set up stalls here, officials said. Main markets and other business establishments continued to remain closed, However, few vendors set up stalls on the TRC Chowk-Lal Chowk axis here.
Public transport was largely off the roads, even as few inter-district cabs and auto-rickshaws were seen plying in some areas of the city, the officials said.
Movement of private cars was unhindered, they added.
There was no classwork in schools as efforts of the state government to open educational institutions have not borne any fruit as parents continued to keep children at home due to apprehensions about their safety, the officials said.
Mobile services remained suspended in Kashmir except in Handwara and Kupwara areas in the north, while Internet services -- across all platforms also continued to be snapped in the valley, they said.
They said the authorities would take a call on the resumption of mobile as well as Internet services, especially leased-line and BSNL Broadband, at an appropriate time.
There are apprehensions of mobile and Internet services being misused by anti-national elements to fuel violence in the valley, they added.
The officials said there were no restrictions anywhere in the valley, but the deployment of security forces continued in vulnerable areas to maintain law and order.
Restrictions were first imposed across Kashmir on 5 August when the Centre announced its decision to abrogate Article 370 of the Constitution and bifurcate the state into two Union territories. The restrictions were lifted in phases from many parts of the valley.
Most of the top level and second rung separatist politicians have been taken into preventive custody while mainstream leaders, including two former chief ministers -- Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, have been either detained or placed under house arrest.
Another former chief minister and sitting Lok Sabha MP from Srinagar Farooq Abdullah has been arrested under the controversial Public Safety act, a law enacted by his father and National Conference founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah in 1978 when he was the chief minister.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
