J&K Admin Reportedly Closes Liquor Shop After Traders Announce Shutdown, Mirwaiz Threatens Protests
Jehangir Ali
3 minutes ago
Mirwaiz, Kashmir's chief cleric, said that the liquor store's opening in Srinagar was a 'deliberate attempt to ruin our people'.
Since the reading down of Article 370 in 2019, when Jammu and Kashmir was stripped of its special status, it is perhaps for the first time that authorities have acted affirmatively and rolled back their own decision following the Hurriyat leader's warning of mass protests.
Mirwaiz's warning came after a group of traders in Srinagar on Friday staged a demonstration to denounce the sale of liquor in Kashmir and also announced a shutdown to protest against the opening of a liquor shop in Srinagar's Batamaloo locality.
In an undated notice accessed by The Wire, the traders of Batamaloo termed the call for a shutdown a 'mark of peaceful protest' while asserting that the decision was taken after consultations with the presidents of all market associations and street vendors in Batamaloo.
The notice, which bears the stamps and signatures of half a dozen traders' associations and shopping complexes in the locality, stated that the shutdown 'reflects the deep concerns of the business community over the negative social and cultural impact of a liquor outlet in our locality. We appeal to the concerned authorities to intervene and take action immediately.'
Wasim Afroz Khan, vice-president of the Batamaloo Traders' Association, said that the shopkeepers and residents of the locality have expressed concern over the opening of the liquor outlet.
'We will not allow it to happen. We have always opposed the opening of liquor shops in Kashmir. It is being justified on the grounds that we are a tourism state, but tourists don't come here to drink liquor. They want to enjoy the cool air, forests, mountains and the natural ecosystem,' he said.
According to reports, the liquor shop had been shifted to Batamaloo from the Pantha Chowk area of Srinagar due to the ongoing Amarnarh yatra.
In his address to the Friday congregation at the historic Jamia Masjid in downtown Srinagar earlier in the day, Mirwaiz had warned of mass protests against the opening of liquor shops in Kashmir, which he said was 'totally unacceptable to the people'.
While delivering his Friday sermon, the moderate Hurriyat chief, who is also the chief cleric of Kashmir, appreciated Batamaloo's traders over the decision to shut their business establishments for three days.
While alleging that the authorities were trying to promote liquor in the Muslim-majority region, Mirwaiz termed the opening of the liquor shop 'an assault on our religious, cultural and societal ethos and a complete disregard for it'.
'It is a deliberate attempt to ruin our people and our future generations. We are already grappling with the menace of drug addiction and now the authorities are promoting liquor to further ruin the people and our societal and cultural fabric,' he said.
Mirwaiz had asked chief minister Omar Abdullah to intervene and ensure that this action is stopped. 'It is the government's duty to ensure that such proposals are nipped in the bud itself. If they fail, then the ulemas, civil society and masses will have no option but to protest,' he said.
According to traders, the shop was sealed by authorities later on Friday.
On February 15 this year, Jammu and Kashmir's excise department invited bids for 305 liquor vends in the Union territory, of which 14 are proposed to be opened in four districts in Kashmir, the tourist destinations of Sonmarg, Pahalgam and Gulmarg, and parts of north Kashmir's Baramulla and Kupwara districts.
Under the new excise policy, the authorities have also proposed to open liquor shops in seven wards of Srinagar city.
Earlier, Abdullah faced public backlash after the excise department, which he heads as Jammu and Kashmir's finance minister, invited the bids.
In an attempt to distance himself from the move, Abdullah had said that the number of liquor vends remains unchanged in Jammu and Kashmir.
Under the new policy, the excise department had said that liquor vends would be opened in government-owned tourist facilities and two airports in Jammu and Kashmir after seeking no-objection certificates from the concerned authorities.
'In view of conducive climatic conditions for processing of special spirits in the UT of J&K, processing and maturation of special spirits shall be encouraged for domestic use as well as export outside India,' the excise policy reads.
During the recent assembly session, Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) legislator Mir Muhammad Fayaz Mir had moved a private members' Bill seeking complete ban on the advertisement, sale, purchase, consumption and manufacture of liquor in Jammu and Kashmir.
While PDP president Mehbooba Mufti's daughter Iltija Mufti had launched a signature campaign against the sale of liquor in Kashmir, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party's senior leaders – former deputy chief minister Nirmal Singh and chairperson of the Jammu and Kashmir waqf board Darakshan Andrabi – had also supported a ban on liquor in the Union territory.
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