Date:21/08/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/21/stories/2008082155221200.htm

National

Violence erupts in Jammu again

Luv Puri

Jammu: Violence returned to the streets of Jammu on Wednesday and 70 people, including police personnel, were injured. Following this, curfew was clamped in the violence-affected areas.

Defying curfew orders, people came out to protest and courted arrest. Wednesday was the last day for the people to court arrest in response to a call by the Shri Amarnath Sangarsh Samiti. The former Congress legislator, Raman Bhalla, led the protesters in the Gandhi Nagar area and he courted arrest. Children, accompanied by their parents, courted arrest in a number of places. The Samiti claims that 3,50,000 people courted arrest, while the police figure put it at less than 1,00,000.

In Janipur area, protesters attacked police personnel who tried to enforce curfew orders. Police vans and posts were damaged and about 12 personnel were injured. There was tension in the Government Medical College Hospital as a doctor was badly beaten up by a policeman. Doctors and medical staff retaliated by beating the policemen there.

In Akhnoor, supporters of the former Congress legislator, Shyam Sharma, and Samiti activists clashed. The Sarwal police post and a government residential building opposite the Gandhi Nagar police station were damaged.

Sources told The Hindu that talks had started on a two-phase compromise formula — reconstitution of the Shrine Board after allaying the fears of the members regarding the demography and at the same time implementing the 2005 J&K High Court verdict which seeks to provide the Shrine Board land temporarily every year for the yatra period.

Concern over divide

Meanwhile, a group of leading academicians and social activists have expressed concern at the widening regional divide in the State. A joint statement released to the press on Wednesday said, “We believe that the issue of transfer of government land to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board and its subsequent revocation provided only a flash point to the alienation of the people of Kashmir which continued to accumulate due to various causes and cumulative discontent among the people of Jammu mainly over lack of share in political power, which took the present turn. The root cause of regional tension is the centralised system in as diverse a State as Jammu and Kashmir. Therefore there is a need for a long term solution to the problem of regional tensions.”