Miscreants vandalize shops in Shopian
Several injured; traders aghast, decide to open shops today; accuse Govt. of sabotaging normalcy
Shopian: In a scuffle between shopkeepers in Shopian town and some miscreants left several people injured today.
Sources said that as the markets in Shopian town opened today after six days shutdown, eight to ten miscreants came on motor cycles and threatened the shopkeepers to down their shutters.
As the shopkeepers resisted, as there was no shutdown call from any group, a scuffle took place between miscreants and shopkeepers resulting into injuries to some people.
Following the scuffle, sources said, some more youth reached the spot around 1700 hours and started vandalizing different shops.
Local sources said that the miscreant had come from village Pinjoora.
One of the injured, identified as Faizaan Ahmed Wagay s/o Mohammad Yakoob Wagay r/o Pinjoora has been referred to a Srinagar hospital.
He has been, sources said, admitted in SKIMS and is critical.
One shopkeeper who received minor injuries has been identified as Nana Tak r/o near Jamia Masjid, Shopian town.
Sources said that at around 1945 hours, unknown miscreants tried to burn shop of one Mohammad Ashraf Tak s/o Mohammad Abdullah Tak r/o Dalal Mohalla Shopian.
It may be recalled here that last evening, shopkeepers held a meeting and decided to open their shops citing that they cannot afford closure of shops for such a long period.
In response to today’s incidents, the traders of the area also held a meeting this evening at Jamia Masjid Shopian.
Sources said that in the meeting, the shopkeepers raised concern about Government motives. The decision taken by Deputy Commissioner to close schools tomorrow was also severely criticized.
They said, If government would have wanted things to normalize, they would have given some security or deployed few security force personnel in the market to protect the shopkeepers, sources privy to the meeting said.
Deciding to open their shops on Monday, the shopkeepers and traders felt that the government doesn’t seem in normalization of the situation.
“We all are pained by the killing of innocents and want the culprits to be punished. They were our children and our hearts bleed for them. If any organization or agency wants us to close our shops for all times to come, we are ready for that too. But we then should be provided some alternative as we can’t see our families starve,” they resolved.
