Srinagar, September 19: Residents of restive Indian Kashmir jammed the markets on Saturday in defiance of a rise in violence to stock up for Eid al-Fitr, the biggest Muslim festival marking the end of Ramadan.
The festival to celebrate the close of the holy month will be held Monday or Tuesday, depending when the new crescent moon is sighted over the region where Islamic militants have been fighting against New Delhi’s rule for 20 years.
“I’m shopping for my children,” said businessman Abdul Rahim, 43, one of a flood of shoppers who ignored a step-up in violence in Kashmir that has marked Ramadan, which began on August 23.
Some militants believe those who die fighting during the holy month gain more heavenly rewards.
Police said Islamic militants had shot dead two policemen late on Friday. Last weekend, a car bomb killed four people in the city.
Shopkeepers set up extra kiosks to cater for the mad shopping rush.
Hundreds awaited their turn outside the city’s well-known confectionery shops and customers filed past with pastries and walnut cookies.
“Eid is the time to celebrate so I’m here to purchase mutton and chicken for the special feast,” said Mushtaq Ahmed, a government employee.
Meanwhile, mosques and shrines have been spruced up for tens of thousands of worshippers.
Muslim separatists, who are spearheading a political movement to break the region away from India and link up with neighbouring Pakistan or make it an independent state, called for austerity.
“Don’t spend lavishly. Think of those families who have lost their loved ones during the conflict,” urged Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the region’s moderate separatist leader and a leading cleric.
The two decades of unrest have left more than 47,000 people dead by official count and thousands more maimed and orphaned.
Despite the latest violence, bloodshed in the region has declined sharply since nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, whose territorial dispute over Kashmir has triggered two wars, embarked on a peace process in 2004.
Talks between the neighbours were suspended in the wake of the militant attacks last November on India’s financial capital Mumbai in which 166 people died.
—Agencies