Valley to stand still in protest tomorrow

Qayoom, the former president of the High Court Bar Association, spelled out the programme charted by the Action Committee. “Our agitation starts from Wednesday when the Action Committee will organise a sit-in at Press Enclave and will take out a procession that will pass through the old city to the house of Feroz Ahmad, a civilian who was killed when CRPF opened fire on protestors at Nowhatta,” he said.

There will be a one-hour standstill protest on Thursday. “Everything would come to a standstill from noon to 1 pm,” Qayoom said. “We request the transporters to stop their vehicles wherever they are, the shopkeepers would down their shutters, the students would move out of their classes and the employees would stop working in their offices”. This would be followed by a sit-in of the religious preachers and worshippers outside the mosques after prayers on Friday.

Asserting that they were not against the annual pilgrimage to the cave shrine, Qayoom said, “when the Government had to construct the Mughal Road, they obtained permission from the Supreme Court. But this time, they have not sought any such permission.”

He struck a note of warning. “After accomplishing this task, we would seek withdrawal of land transfer to Army too. There is roughly seven lakh kanals of land with the Army across the state,” he added.