Bandh against beef ban hits normal life in Srinagar

Authorities imposed restrictions in several downtown localities early Saturday, as separatists called bandh against the beef ban hit life in Srinagar and elsewhere.

Protests against the ban on slaughter and sale of beef ordered by the state high court earlier this week rocked Srinagar and some other towns after the Friday prayers.

The state high court imposed the ban on sale of beef on a petition filed by a Jammu based lawyer invoking the state law on bovine slaughter enacted during the time when Jammu and Kashmir was ruled by the Maharajas.

Early on Saturday morning hundreds of police and paramilitary, Central Reserve Police Force troops moved into the old city to enforce restrictions in areas falling under seven police stations as also the uptown Maisuma area to maintain law and order.

The separatists have reacted sharply to the ban and had called for protests after the Friday prayers and a shutdown.

The shutdown affected normal life shutting shops, businesses in Srinagar and other towns. Public transport is off the roads while the private transport was seen plying affecting attendance in government offices and schools.

Senior separatist leaders including moderate All Parties Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq, hardline APHC chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani and pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik have been placed under house arrest.

All photographs: Umar Ganie