SRINAGAR: The curfew and communications blockade imposed after the revocation of Article 370 is taking a quiet toll on Kashmiri society - on its weddings, to be precise.
The Guroo family in Srinagar’s Jawahar Nagar area is one unfortunate victim.
For the last eight months, the Guroos have been preparing for a grand ceremony, which has now been deferred indefinitely.
The invitation cards had been distributed, the guests had received personal notes, a hall had been booked, and the stock of groceries was in place for the marriage ceremony of their son Zubair Hassan Guroo. But due to the situation in Kashmir following the revocation of Article 370, it all came to naught.
The family sees little point in having a wedding ceremony amid restrictions on movement and suspended phone and internet services.
Parveza Hassan Guroo, the mother of the groom, said, “The situation here is extremely tense and uncertain. How can we celebrate at this time? It is God who decides the perfect time for everything. It will happen when it happens. Some things are beyond human control.”
While the nikah was done in December, the bride was to be brought to her matrimonial home on August 17. Relatives were coming from across India and abroad for the two-day ceremony.
Zubair’s sister Asiya says, “A cousin is supposed to arrive today from California. We don’t know if he is still coming. Everybody was very excited. Now the excitement has turned to gloom.”
Parveza adds that the bride is from Awantipora’s Taknoo village, and it would have been impossible to go there, as restrictions there are stricter than in Srinagar. The family placed an advertisement in a daily announcing the cancellation of the event.
Mohammad Shafi Lone from the Soura area too announced the cancellation of the wedding ceremony of his son Mudasir Ahmad Lone in a local daily.
Lone said only a handful of relatives will now attend the nikah, whereas he had invited around 200 people to the event.
“This will also be a financial loss, but we are helpless. Everything is shut. We cannot even move,” he said.
Ajay Bisaria returns to India
Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Ajay Bisaria has returned to India, days after Islamabad expelled him following its decision to downgrade diplomatic ties over the withdrawal of special status to J&K. It is learnt that Bisaria left Islamabad on Saturday and arrived here via Dubai.
NC leader shifted from J&K to UP
National Conference leader and former minister Ali Mohammad Sagar, who was arrested a few days ago in J&K, was on Sunday shifted to a jail in Uttar Pradesh, officials said. Sagar is the first mainstream political leader being sent out of J&K as part of a government plan to shift prisoners to jails outside the state.