Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani. (PTI)

Srinagar, Aug. 17: Amid risen street tempers, the Hurriyat-led separatists today rejected a desperate appeal by the Srinagar administration to scale down their call to congregate at the UN Military Observer Group’s offices here tomorrow. But they declared a three-day suspension of the “hartal” that has kept the Valley in a violent boil for a fortnight.

In a significant signal, the Hurriyat did not renew its call for a march across the LoC to Muzaffarabad, stating only that the next course will be decided at a mass meeting at Srinagar’s Idgah next Friday. Observers believe this could be a tactic to lower the charged temperature in the Valley and secure a grip on a revolt that has run out of hand. “Hurriyat leaders have themselves been a bit nervous about the high pitch of emotions,” a separatist leader said, “this may be a ploy to bring the movement under control, they have a feeling they are not leading this upsurge, they are being led.”

It is not clear yet whether the N.N. Vohra administration will impose curfew overnight and try to prevent another unfurling of “aazaadi” demonstrations at the UN offices and across Srinagar’s heart tomorrow. That will be an embarrassment to the state. However, crushing the call could claim a high and bloody price, such is the surcharge.

Till late evening, little security mobilisation was on show; on recent evidence, curfew has been tough to impose in the Valley after people have come out onto the streets. A senior police officer said: “If the rally has to be stopped and meaningful restrictions imposed, it should happen tonight, tomorrow morning will be too late.”

So far, the administration has adopted a soft approach to the spreading protests, choosing to keep the security forces in rein and allowing the separatists to vent their anger. It is, at best, a double-edged strategy. It has prevented violence thus far, but it has also demoralised the security forces and rendered separatist forces more confident.

“Their defiance is going unchecked,” warned a worried senior police officer. “They are pushing on and becoming bolder, they will have to be met at some stage and, by then, the costs of containing them might have become too high.”

Separatist leaders, on their part, were smug, confident that the people will defy the “strictest restrictions” if they were imposed tomorrow. Nervous about a backlash from the inflamed street if they scaled down protests, they were at pains to underline the suspension of the “hartal” did not mean any “let-up” in the movement.

“We have to give the people, who have been without essential supplies and medical aid for weeks, some relief but the movement for Kashmiri self-determination will continue unabated,” Hurriyat leader Nayeem Khan said after a three-hour meeting of leaders from both separatist factions this evening.

Uptown Srinagar could see a repeat of the Pampore show of strength tomorrow; Hurriyat leaders claimed hundreds of thousands would converge on the capital’s main avenues to demand “self-determination”.

Apprehensive about violence breaking out at the “aazaadi” demonstration, the government sent Srinagar’s civilian and police chiefs --- Isfandyar Khan and Afadul Mujtaba --- to Moulvi Mirwaiz Farooq and Syed Ali Shah Geelani with a plea to contain the crowds. Both refused to oblige, arguing that they had no control over what the called the “explosion of mass sentiment”.

The administration’s appeal to Mirwaiz Farooq and Geelani perhaps contains its own message; it’s an indirect admission that the political tide has moved, yet again, from mainstream political parties like the National Conference and the PDP into the hands of separatist forces.

Naeem Khan, speaking on behalf of Moulvi Farooq and Geelani, also iterated the three demands the Hurriyat has been making as a precondition to calling off the general strike: open the borders in Muzaffarabad, release all Kashmiri prisoners and pull out all Indian troops from the Valley. Conceding those would effectively mean an Indian withdrawal from Kashmir.

Asked if he realistically expected New Delhi to give in, separatist spearhead Geelani told The Telegraph at his Hyderpora residence today: “That is what our long and painful struggle has been for. The time has now come that India should understand it cannot keep the Kashmiri people and their aspirations under the military’s heel, every little child in Kashmir is crying freedom on the streets today.”

Downtown Srinagar remained in tumult through today, even though public transport returned to the streets in trickles and the odd shop opened.

In Safakadal, which has been the nerve-centre of violent protests, boys as young as in their early teens held sway, stopping vehicles at will, checking media identity cards, pulling passengers out, choosing who they would let through and who they won’t.

“Hamari permission ke bina ab yahan kuchh nahin hoga,” one masked boy told us. “ Kashmir hamara hai, ab India ko bahar nikalna hoga.” (Nothing will happen here without our permission, Kashmir is ours, now India will have to get out.)

With the stick he held in hand, he pointed to an unmanned police picket across the rickety bridge across the Jhelum. “Woh bhaag gaye,” he bragged. “Ab humko pass dikhao.” (They have run away, now show us the passes.)