When people hoist green flags on Clock Tower

Greater Kashmir Daily

Naseer A Ganai

Srinagar, June 27: Amidst pro-freedom and pro-Pakistan slogans, tens of thousands of people thronged the streets of Srinagar on Friday in protest against the transfer of land to SASB. The protests culminated with hoisting of three green flags on the clock tower at Lal Chowk, with CRPF and police personnel looking on.

For the fifth consecutive day today, the protesters demanded immediate revocation of the land transfer order. Right from morning, hundreds of people took to streets in groups, warning the government to revoke the order or face the consequences. “We won’t tolerate the transfer of land to non-state subjects,” the protesters said.
After the Friday prayers, dozens of protests comprising tens of thousands of people reached the city centre. Shouting pro-freedom and pro-Pak slogans, the processionists said Kashmiris cannot tolerate its ‘sale.’ They carried banners reading: Sale of Kashmir not acceptable. The processions reached Lal Chowk from almost every part of the city. They comprised people of all age groups and women were providing refreshments to them at different places.
Meanwhile another procession from Jamia Masjid reached Dalgate, the protesters hoisted a green flag on a traffic beat, evoking pro-freedom slogans. At Dalgate, the procession was joined by another huge procession from areas along the Dal Lake like Nishat, Shalimar, and Harwan. They together moved towards Lal Chowk.
The protesters hoisted another green flag near Doordarshan office. They finally gathered near the Clock Tower, popularly known as the Ghanta Ghar, where they hoisted three green flags with crescent and star. “This is for the first time in the past two decades that a green flag has been hoisted on the tower,” said a senior journalist.
The scene was watched by almost one lakh people, many of whom burst into tears. “This is the fruit of sacrifices rendered by one lakh people in Jammu and Kashmir for the past two decades,” the protesters shouted.

As the flags were being hoisted, the protesters shouted pro-freedom and pro-Pakistan slogans besides slogans against the SASB.
A police party reached the spot when protesters had left the place. They started monitoring the flags. However they didn’t pull down them and left after 15 minutes. At 6.00 PM, another procession reached the tower and hoisted another flag. The CRPF personnel were looking on from the nearby bunkers.