‘Not 1 bullet fired in 6 days’: J-K police chief rebuts reports of violence

There was “not a single incident of violence in Jammu and Kashmir today,” Dilbag Singh, the Jammu and Kashmir police chief said on Saturday evening and stressed that “restrictions on movements had been further relaxed today”. “Things are absolutely normal, not a single incident has been reported from south Kashmir even,” Singh told Hindustan Times after reports in western media about violence in the state. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had also alluded to some media reports of violence when he attacked the central government for the situation in Jammu and Kashmir. Singh also indicated there could be further relaxation in the restriction across Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday so that people could prepare for the forthcoming Eid-ul-Zoha, expected to be celebrated on Monday. “We are closely watching the situation,” he said and reiterated that any report that suggests there has been violence “is false”. In a statement tweeted by the J-K police, the state administration also asked people not to believe fabricated and motivated news. “The police have not fired a single bullet so far in 6 days. The situation is calm, people are cooperative and restrictions are being relaxed to ease the situation,” the state police said. Communication networks have been shut down and a curfew was imposed last Sunday night when the Centre moved to strip Jammu and Kashmir of its special status and divide the state into two Union Territories. Singh, however, added that there were incidents of stone-throwing yesterday in downtown Srinagar. “It was handled with minimum use of force and there was nothing exceptional in the protest,” the police chief said. The Jammu and Kashmir administration in its reports to New Delhi had sent a similar report. It had said that stone- throwers were not more “25-30 people” and the situation had been handled without any casualty.