Author: PNS
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: August 3, 2008
The mass movement over the Amarnath land transfer
issue showed no signs of abating when, on the 10th day of protests on Saturday,
protestors defied curfew to hold demonstrations demanding the ouster of Governor
NN Vohra.
Demonstrators holding the Tricolour came out
in large numbers demanding the restoration of 39.88 hectares land to the Amaranth
shrine even as the Army staged a flag march in supersensitive Jammu and Samba
districts.
Traffic on the Jammu-Pathankot national highway
remained closed.
At least 10 people were injured when security
forces resorted to cane charge and fired warning shots to disperse agitators
gathered in Bisnah to pay homage to Kuldeep Kumar Verma, a youth activist
of Sangarsh Samiti, who died on July 23.
Firebrand religious leader Sadhvi Rithambara,
scheduled to visit Bisnah, was sent back to Delhi from the airport while former
MP Chief Minister Uma Bharati was detained at the circuit house and later
taken to Udhampur.
BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley, here to
attend meetings with State BJP leaders, announced that the would BJP would
organise a nationwide stir from August 11 on the Amarnath issue.
Meanwhile, faced with economic blockade, the
Valley's fruit growers and transporters threatened to take their trucks to
Muzaffarabad across LoC on Monday if authorities failed to provide safe passage
to their vehicles through Jammu. "If our trucks are not allowed to reach
markets outside the State, we will take them to Muzaffarabad," All Valley
Transport Committee of Fruit Growers chief Rasool Bhat said in Srinagar.
Hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani
asked Muslims not to leave Jammu and lashed out at Hindu outfits for the blockade
of the Valley. "Muslims of Jammu should not think of migration,"
he said.
