SRINAGAR: Normal life remained affected on Thursday after threatening posters appeared in several parts of Kashmir warning shopkeepers with dire consequences.
Most of the shops remained completely shuttered or were partially shut for the whole day. Shops that opened in morning hours closed after news about posters and arson of shops started doing rounds.
At least four shops were gutted in a fire at Bohri Kadal in old city on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday. As per locals the shops had suffered massive losses.
Warning posters from proscribed militant originations have surfaced in the old city, asking traders to call off their routine business. At several places, shutters of shops were marked with paint as a sign of warning for defying the shutdown.
In Srinagar’s downtown, a cab was also mysteriously set ablaze during the night causing fear in the neighborhood
“There is a fear pervading in the air. If burning of shops is a sign of warning, I should have no qualms in shutting my shop. Life is precious than anything else,” said Burhan, a textile shopkeeper at busy Amira Kadal.
Markets in south Kashmir remained completely shut for the second consecutive day. Eyewitness told Kashmir Reader that Anantnag, Kulgam, Shopian and Pulwama markets did not open which otherwise used to operate either for full or half-day.
In north Kashmir’s Baramulla, Bandipora, and Kupwara, shops were by and large shut. Shops in part’s of central Kashmir’s Budgam district were also shut, as per witnesses.
Since August 5, when special constitutional status of J&K was scrapped and the state downsized into two union territories, routine life has remained affected, taking a heavy toll on economy, social life and political activities.
Meanwhile, internet and pre-paid mobile phones continue to remain shut since August 5. Both broadband and mobile internet services are shut across Kashmir leaving millions of people affected.
The government of India without specifying any time-frame has said that internet will be restored at an appropriate time. It has also affected tax collection in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir as the government has admitted that the blackout has resulted in “abysmal” dip in revenue collection as only 40 percent filers were able to submit returns in the last three months.

Reader correspondent