Workers flee after protests on braid-chopping

200 labourers at a key flyover project were at the receiving end of protests

Protesters clash with police in Srinagar on Monday after a woman’s braid was allegedly chopped o by unknown persons in the city.

As many as 125 skilled and 75 semi-skilled labourers working on a ₹350-crore flyover project here have left after being at the receiving end of protests over forcible cutting of women’s hair by miscreants in the Valley.

Satish Razdan, Chief Engineer, Economic Reconstruction Agency, told The Hindu that labourers from outside Kashmir had left after two major incidents of the so-called “ braid-chopping ”.

“In the first incident, a group of labourers were caught in a melee sparked by an alleged braid-chopping incident and consequent street protests near the Solina area. One week ago, local people barged into a facility at Rambagh at night alleging that a braid chopper was one among the labourers. I tried to persuade the labourers not to leave, but they were scared,” Mr. Razdan said.

“The migration of labourers has affected the work.”

Work on the 2.4-km Rambagh-Jehangeer Chowk flyover, a key project to regulate traffic here, started in 2012.

December deadline

Mr. Razdan said the department was grappling to meet the December deadline to throw open one tube.

“We are not as sure as we were a month ago about meeting the deadline,” he said.

He said there was a dearth of skilled labourers in the Valley and “a lack of skilled labourers means disengaging semi-skilled labourers too”.

Police data accessed by The Hindu show that the braid-cutting scare is fast spreading in the Valley with 11 incidents on Saturday alone.

Over 60 civilians, including non-local labourers and visitors, have been beaten up by mobs “chasing the so-called braid-choppers,” the police report said. “We have lodged around 105 FIRs into such incidents so far,” Inspector-General of Police, Kashmir, Muneer Khan said.