Senior Superintendent of Police, Srinagar, on Wednesday afternoon refuted the story about the closing down of shops in Srinagar’s Pantha chowk during Amarnath Yatra.
“There is story going in certain groups that shops are closed in Panthachowk, it is clarified that all shops are completely open in whole of Srinagar distt including in Panthachowk, except about a dozen or more mechanical/scrap shops inside yatra camp campus,” Rakesh Bhalwal, the SSP, said in a statement.
He further added that the shop owners were asked to get verification done and operate the shops, “but instead of doing this they opted to protest under influence of some vested interests”.
He said: “Media houses are kindly requested to get confirmation from Administration before doing sweeping stories on such sensitive matters during yatra period which can be used by subversive elements to peddle fake narratives.”
Earlier, the news about scores of shopkeepers appealing to the LG administration to reconsider their decision of closed down their shops in Pantha Chowk area of Srinagar outskirts till the end of Amarnath Yatra came out.
