In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, scores of shopkeepers Wednesday appealed to the authorities to reconsider their decision of closing down their shops in Pantha Chhoke area of Srinagar outskirts till the end of Hindu pilgrimage Amarnath Yatra.
The shopkeepers mostly dealing with spare parts’ business assembled in Press Enclave Srinagar and registered a protest against the decision to bar them from opening shops in wake of Amarnath Yatra.
The 43-day pilgrimage to the Amarnath cave will begin from twin base camps in IIOJK on Thursday and will conclude on 11 August.
“We have been directed to close our shops for 40 days. It is injustice. Our families will starve. We are already economically weak,” one of the protesting shopkeepers Suhail Ahmed told the media.
The protesting shopkeepers said that the route that yatris will use is far away from their shops and yet they are being barred to open their shops.
“There are at least 60 shops that have been closed down. We knocked the doors of every official, but nobody listened to us,” they said.—KMS
