Date:23/08/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/23/stories/2008082350160100.htm

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Talks with Amarnath Samiti today

Staff Reporter

Jammu: Curfew was clamped on the Hiranagar area of Kathua district on Friday in the wake of continuing protests, even as the first round of talks to resolve the crisis, triggered by the cancellation of the order transferring land to the Amarnath shrine, is set to begin on Saturday.

Representatives of the Shri Amarnath Yatra Sangharsh Samiti are scheduled to meet the four-member panel appointed by Governor N.N. Vohra at 9 a.m. at the State Guest House. The government side is headed by the former Chief Secretary, S.S. Bloeria. He is now Adviser to the Governor.

The four-member Samiti side is headed by Tilak Raj Sharma.

There was a strong presence of Army personnel in various parts of Jammu on Friday. After the changes in the police administration, a new SSP took charge on Friday.

Three SSPs have been replaced in the last two months in Jammu since the agitation started.

However, protests continued in the Janipura area. In Kishtwar town, the curfew was relaxed for four-and-a-half hours and in Samba town for 11 hours.

There was violence in the Hiranagar area of Kathua district. “We have decided to impose curfew in Hiranagar as there is a danger of the situation worsening,” DIG of J&K Police (Jammu Samba-Kathua) Abdul Qayoom told The Hindu.

The national organisations of the Gujjar tribe have appealed to the community not to migrate from its ancestral lands.