Image Source: TRIBUNE

The lockdown prompted by the coronavirus scare entered the third day on Sunday in the Valley as towns and cities turned ghostly silent. Amid the shutdown, the administration battled a new challenge — travellers hiding their travel history.

The markets across all districts of Kashmir remained closed and the roads blocked with concertina wire were manned by police and paramilitary personnel.

Sunday saw the strictest lockdown in Kashmir, drawing similarities with the restriction imposed on August 5 last year when the region was put under a prolonged shutdown.

The public transport across the region remained suspended and all educational institutes and coaching centres remain shut to prevent the spread of coronavirus.


The lockdown began on Friday, a day after the first positive case was reported in Srinagar. Soon after, residents rushed to stock essentials and medicine.

More than 1,000 people who have come back from foreign countries, where the infection is widespread, have been put under quarantine as the administration has put in place widespread measures to contain the spread of the contagious disease.

The administration in Srinagar city, which hosts most of the travellers arriving in Kashmir via the road and air links, also battled a growing number of passengers who had not disclosed their travel history.

Deputy Commissioner of Srinagar Shahid Choudhary said several people who arrived in the city were detained from their homes and put under quarantine.

He said a medical student at a college in Bangladesh, a woman studying is the US and four other passengers travelling from Mauritius, Kazakhstan and Dubai had attempted to hide their travel record.


“A gentleman coming from Italy reaches New Delhi via another port. Takes train to Jammu and cab to home in Srinagar, just to hide travel history,” Choudhary said, adding that the person was traced and put under quarantine.

A senior doctor in the city said he feared the disease could “lead to a collapse” in the region.

“We are in for a long haul,” said the doctor who works at Kashmir’s only tertiary care hospital.

“The lockdown will not end the epidemic soon but it will decrease the peak of cases…make the health crisis much more manageable,” he said.