October 08, 2008	Wednesday	Shawwal 08, 1429

SRINAGAR, Oct 7: Schools, businesses and government offices reopened on Tuesday and vehicles were back on the streets in occupied Kashmir as authorities lifted a two-day curfew from the troubled Himalayan region.

Security forces removed steel barricades and layers of razor wires from the roads across the Kashmir Valley and thousands of Kashmiris flooded the streets of Srinagar buying food and other essentials.

The curfew was imposed across the region on Sunday to thwart a huge pro-independence rally in Srinagar. In August, the authorities prevented a similar rally by clamping a nine-day curfew.

The two-day curfew period was largely peaceful, barring an incident in Baramulla, a town 55km north of Srinagar where security forces fired tear gas to disperse the crowd defying the ban. No one was injured, said Abdul Gani Mir, a senior police officer.—AP