But no worries, the clashes were “minor.” Just stay in your house and don’t ask questions.
It sometimes seems as if the whole world is in denial and trying to downplay the magnitude of the jihad. “Shia-Sunni clashes erupt in J&K,” from The Asian Age, January 5 (thanks to Twostellas):
Jan. 5: The Jammu and Kashmir police with CRPF are enforcing strict security restrictions on the town of Magam near here and its neighbourhood following clashes between groups of Shias and Sunnis.
Tension gripped the area earlier over the naming of a marketplace. Minor clashes also occurred between the two sides in half a dozen villages around Magam town along the Srinagar-Gulmarg road. When the police intervened and tried to restore peace, it was attacked with rocks and other missiles by irate mobs forcing it to fire teargas canisters and swing bamboo sticks against the urchins. Earlier, Sunni and Shia residents targeted each other’s homes and others properties overnight causing damaged to these and injuries to some people. In all started after unidentified men pulled down a hoarding which had a photograph of an Iranian spiritual leader on it.
The Shias blamed the incident on their Sunni neighbours triggering clashes between the two sides. Also, an old dispute over the use of a plot of land adjacent to a mosque has played a role towards escalating tensions.
Soon loudspeaker-fitted police jeeps went round to announce imposition of curfew and ask people not to venture out from their homes.
Though this and deployed of hundreds of policemen and CRPF personnel did not stop the groups of people indulging in violence, the officials described the incidents as “minor” and that the situation was now peaceful.
Tuesday’s incidents came close on the heels of clashes between the Shia and Sunni residents of Teetwal, Karnah area in frontier Kupwara district.