Dismissing reports of firing by security forces, a topofficial of Jammu and Kashmir on Monday evening said that the Eid celebrationsin the valley were “extremely peaceful and relaxed”.“There have been somereports in the media about firing by security agencies and deaths, the policecarried out a detailed briefing and I would like to reiterate and categoricallydeny that any firing incident has happened in J&K,” said Rohit Kansal,J&K Principal Secy (Planning Commission) and the designated official spokespersonof the government.

The state has been under security lockdown since August 5when the Central government moved to end special status of Jammu and Kashmirand divide the state into two union territories – J&K with a legislatureand Ladakh without an assembly. Kansal further said that the administrationcarried out a number of steps to ensure citizens were not inconvenienced.“TheDistrict and Divisional Administration carried out a number of activities,including interacting with maulvis, people, organising mandis, and as a resultwe’ve had an extremely peaceful and relaxed Eid today,” said Kansal.

The mood was subdued with roads deserted across largeswathes of the Valley, the silence broken only by police sirens and IAFhelicopters hovering overhead, reported 

Kansal added that more than 2.5 lakh sacrificial animalswere arranged by the administration and mandis were set up in eight places tofacilitate buying.

The police, however, said there were a couple of minorincidents.

“We just had a couple of minor localised incidents of lawand order which was handled very professionally. In these incidents, there isonly a couple of injury reported and otherwise situation in the entire valleyis normal,” said Inspector General (IG) of Police, Kashmir, SP Pani.

On Sunday, Senior state administrative and police officials— divisional commissioner Baseer Khan, inspector general of police SwayamPrakash Pani and Srinagar’s district magistrate Shahid Choudhary — held ameeting with local clerics on Sunday to oversee prayer arrangements and ensurepeaceful celebrations.Unlike previous years, this was a lonely Eid for formerstate chief ministers Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti wihtcelebratory crowds nowhere to be seen, reported quoting officials.