Chairman of Peoples Democratic Front, Hakeem Yaseen, and president of Democratic Party Nationalist Ghulam Hassan Mir on Thursday said that government imposing ban on the civilian traffic movement on Srinagar-Jammu highway for two days in a week tantamount to snatching civil liberties.
In a statement Hakeem Yaseen said, “Arbitrary order banningcivilian traffic on Srinagar-Jammu highway for two days a week is unwise.Prohibiting movement of civilian traffic on the highway on security groundsshows that tall claims of Government about improvement in the ground situationin Kashmir were totally baseless.”
He said “Such an anti people step was not seen even in 1990when the security situation was out of control of the government machinery andsecurity forces.
The president of Democratic Party Nationalist (DPN) GhulamHassan Mir in a statement said that such a decision will cause great inconvenienceto the public; therefore the government should revisit its order.
“Decision in view of Army movement was good but at the sametime, public should not be put to inconvenience,” he said.
Chairman of J&K RTI Movement Dr Raja Muzaffar in astatement said, “Nowhere in the democratic world such orders have been issuedwherein civilian traffic movement is held up to pave a way for safe movement ofArmy convoys.”
Meanwhile, RTIactivists would stage a protest in Srinagar on Friday against this order. “Wewill be holding a demonstration against this move and we appeal people to makethis protest a success and hold similar demonstrations across other towns ofKashmir ” said Dr Mushtaq Khan general secretary RTI Movement.