Separatists or govt: Whose Valley is it anyway?

WHOSE RULE? Protests in the Valley are increasingly following the call of the separatists.

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Srinagar: The nearly two weeks of calm in the Kashmir Valley was shattered once again. There was pitched fighting between protestors and paramilitary forces in the Maisuma area of Srinagar in which senior separatist leader Yasin Malik sustained injuries in clashes with the police while leading a protest.

Elsewhere in the Valley, police fired on protestors in Pulwama and Baramulla. It seems as if this is the beginning of the end of the relative calm seen in the Valley over the last two weeks.

All Parties Hurriyat Conference Chairman, Mirwaiz Omar Farooq said,"We warn the Indian Government not to use excessive force on peaceful protestors. We will launch a Jail Bharo (fill the jails) agitation and strengthen the agitation."

The fresh violence further underlines that the situation in Kashmir is just not right for October-November elections. With the separatist sentiment still going strong, a month-long agitation calendar recently issued by the Hurriyat Coordination Committee is strictly being adhered to by one and all.

Kashmir University Vice-Chancellor, Riyaz Punjabi said, "Even the Universities' academic calendar has been revised in tune with the agitation calendar. Our calendar is now subservient to it. This is for the first time in my life that I'm experiencing such a thing."

This has now led people to ask who actually is in charge in Kashmir - the Hurriyat or the government? And whether the government would still go ahead with the proposed elections?

The massive response to the Hurriyat's call and the subsequent violence are indicators of the fragility of the peace in the Valley and the shifting political ground and people are beginning to wonder if the Election Commission's plans to hold elections in Jammu and Kashmir on time will succeed.