Kashmir has remained shut for 33 days since unrest began on June 11, when teenager Tufail Matoo was killed by a teargas shell in Rajouri Kadal.
J Ahmad, 39, had never imagined he’d need to phone his friends in the media every day. Ahmad owns a reputed wholesalers shop in Srinagar. The calls are made mostly out of desperation —- to find out the latest event in the protest calendar of separatists.
Every time he learns about another hartal or another round of curfew, Ahmad feels frustrated. It just adds to mounting financial losses.
Ahmad sells cooking oil, sugar and bakery products and has a daily turnover of more than Rs1.5 lakh. Each day of hartal or curfew costs him Rs5,000 to Rs8,000 in profits. “Our financial losses are mounting by the day. There are traders who owe banks huge amounts of money and the interest rate is very high,” he said.
Kashmir has remained shut for 33 days since unrest began on June 11, when teenager Tufail Matoo was killed by a teargas shell in Rajouri Kadal.
In the subsequent unrest, 14 more people including a woman were killed by security forces triggering a fresh wave of protests.
This prompted Hurriyat hardliners led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani announce their Quit Jammu and Kashmir programme, which included hartals, mass sit-ins and marches.
Each day of hartal or curfew costs the Valley Rs55 crore and small traders are the worst hit by shutdowns.
“Financial loss was too small, compared to the loss of human lives and education of children. The government of India should initiate meaningful dialogue with the relevant state leadership to help resolve the political crisis,” a spokesman of the Federation Chamber of Industries Kashmir (FCIK), said.
Government figures reveal that from 1990 to 2007, Kashmir had 1,471 days (almost four years) of hartals, causing losses of thousands of crores. It also affected the education of students badly. Unofficial figures say there were more than 2,000 days of strikes and curfews in the past 20 years.
Hurriyat hardliners justified the strikes, saying the losses suffered by traders are needed to achieve the goal of azadi. “The losses suffered by the traders is not only their contribution to the movement, it is also an expression of their support to the struggle,” Masrat Alam Bhat, general secretary of the Geelani-led Hurriyat said.
Low on popularity, J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah has renewed his appeal to the people to cooperate with the government to restore normalcy.
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