No restriction in any part of Srinagar, police

Srinagar, Sept 30: There are no restrictions on Saturday in any part of the summer capital, Srinagar, where about one hundred mourners were taken into preventive custody after they defied restrictions and tried to took out Tazia processions on 8th day of Muharram yesterday. There were media reports that restrictions under Section 144 CrPC, imposed in areas falling under eight police stations in the Srinagar city, including civil lines, yesterday have been extended to more areas today. However, police said there are no restrictions in any part of the Valley, including Srinagar today. Restrictions imposed yesterday have been lifted, police added. A UNI correspondent who visited a number of areas in the down town, civil lines, including historic Lal Chowk, the nerve centre of the summer capital and uptown saw shops and business establishments doing normal business. Traffic was also plying on all routes normally. District authorities had imposed yesterday in parts of Srinagar to prevent Muharram procession from Guru Bazar to Imambara Dalgate via Moulana Azad road. Security forces and police burst teargas shells and resorted to lathicharge to disperse the mourners at several places in the city though the Divisional Commissioner has recently said there was no ban on Tazia processions in the city. Muharram processions are banned in the Civil Lines since 90s when separatists and Shia and Sunni Muslims jointly took out Tazia processions. About 100 mourners were taken into preventive custody for defying restrictions in the city. However, Muharram processions elsewhere in the Valley were taken out peacefully. UNI