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Amarnath shrine land transfer issue is getting worse day by day as curfew has been extended by five days in Jammu and adjoining areas.

Jammu, Samba, Rajouri and Udhampur have already been under curfew for nearly a month due to the ongoing unrest of the month old agitation. Meanwhile, army has been called in to keep the situation under control.

A day-long strike has been called to protest against violence, blockades and harassment of Muslims in Jammu region. The strike was called by breakaway Hurriyat Conference faction led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani. Around 37 people were injured in the clashes on Sunday.

Talking on the issue of blocking two local TV news channels and sealed the offices of two Hindi dailies for allegedly whipping up communal passions, Chief Secretary S S Kapur had said, “They were repeatedly asked not to telecast provocative and inflammatory content,” Kapur said.

He said the channels were violating the programme code under the Cable Network (Regulation) Act, 1995. “The administration had earlier issued notices to the channels, but they kept on transmitting highly objectionable and provocative material. Our patience was exhausted and we decided to act” he said.

“Since the two channels are also cable service providers without signal separators, the transmission of other channels was disrupted,” he explained.

Protesters torched four houses in R S Pura near Jammu and stoned vehicles damaging four trucks in Hira Nagar.

The agitation is going for the restoration of 40 hectares of forest land in north Kashmir to the SASB that was given to the shrine board May 26 and then withdrawn July 1.

Tags: Amarnath, amarnath land, amarnath land row, curfew, Jammu, Jammu Kashmir

The order of transferring the controversial land to the Amarnath shrine board has been withdrawn by Jammu and Kashmir cabinet. The land has been transferred to the Tourism Department. The decision is taken in the meeting of the cabinet under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad while discussing the Amarnath land row which has lead to much protest in the state from anti and for quarters of the deal.

Section 144 was imposed in Jammu to prevent situation getting out of hand. Situation in the state is under control but still tense. Police had to fire in the air near Baltal in Sonamarg when some people tried to block Army vehicles en-route to Leh.

The state government had already written to Governor N N Vohra, who is also the Chairman of SASB, which it was in a better position to provide facilities to the pilgrims on a larger scale following which the shrine board gave up the claim on the land - an issue which had led to a series of protests in the valley.

This was the first time that the cabinet met formally without PDP ministers, who resigned during the weekend to protest over the hand over 39.88 hectares of land to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB).

This move by the ministers also surprised the Congress as the proposal was mooted by two ministers before the state cabinet and both of them belonged to the PDP.

As a preventive measure in the state, police has restricted the movement of some of separatist leaders including Hurriyat Chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Shabbir Shah.

Tags: Amarnath, BJP, Hurriyat, Jammu, Jammu Band, Kashmir, Police, Shiv Sena

In the fresh protest against the decision of hand over of forest land to the Amarnath Shrine Board by BJP and Shiv sena activists, 70 protesters were arrested during the clash which left 9 people injured.

Protesters were throwing stones to show their anger and also attacked houses of State Health Minister and senior Congress leader Mangat Ram Sharma and People’s Democratic Party legislator Shanti Devi as said by official sources. However, there was no major incident reported so far.

Ten activists were arrested in Jammu and 60 arrested in Kathua district. Police baton charged over 1,000 BJP activists to resort traffic on Tawi Bridge.

Effigies of Governor Vohra, CM Ghulam Nabi Azad, PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and former deputy CM Muzaffar Hussain Baig were also burnt during the agitation.

Transport system was also affected due to the protest. Pathankot-Jammu-Srinagar National Highway was blocked at six places in Kathua, Samba, Jammu and Udhampur districts, where protestors put up barricades, thereby stranding over 2,000 vehicles.

It was reported that BJP and Shiv Sena activists clashed with police at Ragunath Bazaar, City Chowk, Bikram Chowk, Muthi, Kathua, R S Pura, Udhampur, Nagrota, Bari Brahamana, Vijaypur and Samba areas in Jammu district during the bandh.

“The situation is under control. There is no major incident reported from anywhere in Jammu region. Some preventive arrests were made,” Inspector General of Police Jammu K Rajindra said.

Tags: Amarnath, BJP, Jammu, Jammu Band, Kashmir, Police, Shiv Sena