Curfew lifted in Jammu and Kashmir town

JAMMU - Curfew was lifted in Jammu and Kashmir’s Samba town Tuesday after Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s aides held discussions with local leaders whose demand for the removal of a senior police officer was accepted, authorities said.

Samba Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Raghubir Singh was removed from his services after locals accused him of links with cow smugglers. Jagdish Lal Sharma, the Jammu SSP police control room, has been asked to take over as the new district police chief of Samba, about 40 km from here.

Curfew was imposed in Samba late Monday after clashes between protestors and police over bovine smuggling left at least 30 people injured, including an additional superintendent of police. Residents had intercepted a group of bovine smugglers. The word about the incident spread and enraged locals took to the streets, blocking traffic on the Jammu-Pathankot highway and raising slogans against the local administration.

“The situation is under control,” Industries Minister Surjit Singh Salathia, who is camping in Samba, told IANS Tuesday morning.

Salathia, who represents Vijaypur constituency of Samba district, and the chief minister’s political adviser Devinder Singh Rana were deputed by Abdullah to review the situation.

The curfew was lifted after Salathia and Rana held wide ranging discussions with the leaders of Samba town until past midnight.

Salathia and Rana assured them that no illegal activity that would hurt religious sentiments would be allowed anywhere.