Data compiled by the state Home Department upto November 2010 revealed that there were 131 hartals and 134 processions and demonstrations sponsored by separatists in the state this year.
In 2009, there were only 45 such demonstrations and processions and 35 days of strike, while in 2008 there were 15 protest demonstrations and 33 hartals, the data revealed.


There were a total of 2,096 processions and demonstrations sponsored by separatists in the Kashmir Valley in the past two decades and 1,671 such hartals recorded since January 1990. The highest number of 416 demonstrations and processions were recorded in Jammu and Kashmir in 1992 and the highest number of 207 hartals were recorded in 1991, the report said. The increase in the number of the hartals and protest demonstrations was mainly because of the four-month-long violent agitation in the Valley earlier this year.


Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has blamed separatists and militants for financially sponsoring such agitations. BJP too has blamed separatists, particularly Hurriyat Hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geeelani, for sponsoring the violent demonstrations, processions and strikes in Kashmir.



(Courtesy : http://news.in.msn.com)