Protesters shout slogans against the state government in Jammu on Tuesday. (AP)

Srinagar, July 1: The state cabinet today formally revoked the land allotment to the Amarnath shrine board prompting the separatists to end their nine-day-old agitation, but Jammu erupted in violence.

The cabinet promised land for creating facilities for Amarnath pilgrims at unspecified places across the state, to be developed by the government’s tourism department. But that failed to prevent a Sangh parivar-led backlash in Jammu.

Clashes between police and protesters injured 70 people, including the superintendent of police (Jammu north) and 29 other personnel. Police firing wounded three in Muthi while the rest were injured in tear-gas shelling, baton-charges and stone throwing.

Mobs burnt tyres on roads and blockaded the Srinagar-Jammu highway — the Valley’s lifeline — and curfew was clamped in four police station areas in Jammu: Nawabag, Domania, Janipora and Bakshi Nagar.

In the Valley, where protests have left four dead and 500 injured, life remained paralysed till evening before hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani called the agitation off.

“He (Geelani) has congratulated the people. India has for the first time conceded defeat. The people should go back to work from tomorrow,” Hurriyat spokesperson Ayaz Akbar announced.

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which had pulled out of the government over the controversy, and the Opposition National Conference (NC) welcomed the cabinet decision to cancel the allotment of the 40 hectares of forest land.

The move comes days after governor N.N. Vohra, who also heads the shrine board, withdrew its request for land.

After the cabinet meeting, which was chaired by chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, transport minister Hakim Yasin said the revocation was neither a win nor a defeat for anybody.

“It should not be looked at through that prism. For the last several years, an atmosphere of peace had prevailed in Kashmir. So we decided to maintain peace by revoking the order,” he said.

To placate the Sangh parivar, the government said it would make land available to the tourism department to build facilities for the pilgrims “at various locations from Jammu onwards to the holy cave via the Baltal-Domial as well as the Pahalgam yatra route”.

It said the existing facilities would not only be maintained properly “but also upgraded from year to year”, and asked the tourism department to make adequate budget provisions.

But BJP state president Ashok Khajuria threatened an economic blockade of the Valley. “There is fuel scarcity in Jammu…. You can well imagine what the situation will be in Kashmir,” he said.

NC president Omar Abdullah said: “We welcome the (government) move. Some political groups, particularly in Jammu, are trying to exploit the issue because they want to pin down the Congress.”

But he added: “We have made it clear that we are not going to support Azad (whose ministry has been reduced to a minority after the PDP pullout) on the floor of the House.”

“We had withdrawn support only for this purpose; it has now yielded results,” PDP general secretary Nizamudin Bhat said.