The atmosphere of fear is the dominant feeling in the entire Kashmir valley on the eve of 26 January Republic Day as has been the case since past three decades. The large scale frisking and Cordon and Search operations known as CASO have added to the overall fear this year.
Pertinently, the 15 August Independence Day and 26th January Republic Day have seen over the last 30 years continues shutdowns with pro freedom parties calling to mark them as black days.
“We have seen continuously over the past thirty year’s environment of bloodshed, uncertainty and fear in Kashmir. It seems Kashmir has been turned into an active war zone and all this gets compounded on the eve of 15th August and 26th January. This year too you will not find enough space to move around because of certain restrictions being imposed by government law and force agencies. From 24th January only you will feel fear to move around. This issue needs a political settlement otherwise we won’t see much headway, stated Mir Imran, Human Rights Defender”.
More than resembling the joy and celebration the 26 Jan or 15 August in kashmir have become synonyms of search operations, Shutdown , Frisking , uneasy atmosphere .
On the other hand the Government too has every year almost issued circulars for it's employees to attend the functions to be held on Independence Day and Republic Day which have been criticized much.
Meanwhile the Hurriyat Conference strongly condemned the government move of converting entire Kashmir especially Srinagar into a military fortress on the eve of India’s Republic Day stating that forces have unleashed a reign of terror everywhere in Kashmir.