After eight days, curfew was today relaxed for one-and-a-half hours in select areas of communal violence-hit Kishtwar district in Jammu region in view of improvement in situation.

“Curfew in select areas of Kishtwar town has been relaxed for an hour-and-a-half from 1 p.m. today,” Kishtwar District Magistrate Baseer Khan said.

“There was no report of any untoward incident from anywhere in the district in the past 24 hours. The situation is limping back to normal and in view of this improvement, we have decided to relax the curfew,” Khan said.

Union Home Secretary Anil Goswami had yesterday reviewed the overall security situation at the international border along with senior officers of Jammu frontier and representatives from the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Curfew was imposed in Kishtwar on August 9 after communal clashes in which three persons were killed and over 20 were injured.

On August 10, authorities had imposed curfew in Jammu and Rajouri after incidents of violence. Next day, it was imposed in Reasi, Udhampur, Samba, parts of Doda and Kathua.

Curfew was lifted from seven districts on August 15 after the situation improved. About 141 people have been so far taken into custody in connection with the violence in Kishtwar.

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