Fed up with agitation, traders open shops 
Tribune News Service

Rajouri, July 7
Suffering huge losses due to the BJP's agitation over the land transfer issue, traders and shop-owners today defied the party's orders, after the Azad-led coalition bowed out of power, by opening their business establishments here in border districts of Rajouri and Poonch.
After news channels flashed that Azad-led coalition government had fallen, traders and shopkeepers found it the right opportunity to defy the diktat of the BJP, which has already called for continuing the agitation, and opened the business establishments and shops.
Traders and shop-owners of a particular community have been suffering heavy losses in this peak season of business activity due to the ongoing agitation.
"A fuel pump owned by a local BJP leader remained open even as party activists tried their every effort, even violence, to forcibly close down our business establishments. This clearly speaks of the double standards of the BJP. On the one hand, they make poor traders and shopkeepers to suffer, while on the other hand they themselves they don't allow their political agenda to hit their livelihood," said Jyoti Prakash, a resident of the old city area here and a businessman.
"Even if the government had survived, we were planning to open our business establishments. There is politics involved in the agitation and it (BJP) has nothing to do with the religious interests of a religious community."
Reports from Nowshera and Sunderbani in this border district said that immediately after the word about the fall of the Azad-led government spread, traders and shopkeepers opened their business establishments.