Curfew in Srinagar to prevent Muharram procession

SRINAGAR - Several parts of Srinagar were placed under curfew Friday to prevent the main procession from being taken out on Muharram.

“Curfew has been imposed in seven police station areas of Srinagar city to maintain law and order today (Friday),” a senior police officer said here.

The main Muharram procession, which is scheduled to be taken out by thousands of Shia Muslims, has not been allowed by the authorities ever since the present armed violence began here in the early 1990s.

Shia Muslims across the world carry out Muharram processions on the 10th day of the Muslim month of Muharram to commemorate the martyrdom of Imam Hussain, the grandson of the Prophet of Islam.

Meanwhile, moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umer Farooq was taken into custody by the police late Thursday from the Old City Rajouri Kadal headquarters of the separatist Awami Action Committee (AAC).

“The Mirwaiz was later dropped at his Nigeen residence,” sources in the AAC told IANS.

On Thursday evening, activists of Mirwaiz’s group had staged a torchlight protest in the Old City area against the administration’s decision to impose curfew on Muharram.

Markets and other business establishments were closed while private and public transport went off the roads in Srinagar city as police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers manned the streets to enforce curfew.

Srinagar district magistrate had said in his preventive order Thursday evening that only those Muharram processions would be allowed to be taken out Friday for which prior permission had been obtained from the authorities.