Kashmir Valley saw the celebration of Shiv Ratri by a different community this year. Separatists withdrew their strike which allowed Hindus, as well as Muslims, celebrate the important festival throughout Kashmir Valley. Kashmiri Pandits and their families celebrated the festival by performing the holy rituals at the nearby temples. And with the separatists withdrawing the strike it allowed a lot of Muslim people to join the important Hindu festival as well.

The India Today News reported that the people of the valley conducted night long puja in their respective houses and greeted each other after the puja with a "Salaam." When the other parts of Kashmir were busy in the celebration of Shiv Ratri, there is a particular place in the valley named Bandipore where the scene was a bit different. The small town has a Shiv Temple on the banks of the river Jhelum. Due to the militancy in the early nineties, all Kashmiri Pandits fled the town. Since then the ancient Shiv Temple hasn't had Shiv devotees. But this year it was all different.

According to NDTV, Kashmiri Muslims living in the town celebrated the festival. The whole movement was led by a local contractor named Imtiaz Ahmad. Under him, a lot of other Muslim men did other works of the temple like that of scrubbing the temple floor, pouring water, and milk on the Shivling. They even offered sweets and fruits to the deity.

Other than doing the Hindu rituals, hundreds of Muslim gathered in front of the temple gate with placards asking the Hindu pandits to come back home. They made sure that nobody missed the message. For them, it is a small step of showing equality but it provided a strong message all over.

Imtiaz Ahmed who led the whole movement did his best in bringing together everybody to keep the tradition of the town alive. They did their best in doing all the temple chores which the Pandits used to do. They also distributed walnuts to the devotees who turned up for the night long puja.

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