First New Year celebrations at Lal Chowk in Srinagar

Srinagar: Braving sub-zero temperatures, hundreds of locals and tourists thronged the iconic Ghanta Ghar at Lal Chowk on New Year's eve in Srinagar.

As the Sun set over 2023 for the last time, the refurbished Ghanta Ghar square started to come alive with New Year celebrations.

While assemblies at Ghanta Ghar prior to 2019 were mostly protests or secessionist in nature, Sunday's gathering was different.

"This is for the first time we are having a New Year party in a public place. We used to have such parties earlier as well but those were limited to the elite class and organised behind closed doors of hotels," Aqib Ahmad, a 22-year-old city resident, said as he swerved to the tunes of songs played from the stage set up at Lal Chowk.

Until a few years ago, it was unthinkable to have a New Year party in a public place but things have changed now, he said.

"Everyone wants to have some entertainment in life. Look around and you will find people from all walks of life. You have people with conservative outlook and you have modern looking people too. They are all having a good time," he added.

Not only the city residents, Kashmiris from other parts of the Valley also descended on the summer capital to enjoy the New Year festivities.

"I was pleasantly surprised at the scale of the event organised in the city. Similar functions should be held in all district headquarters from next year," said Lateef Khatana, a resident of a remote village in Kokernag area of Anatnag district.

Khatana and his friends had travelled more than 100 kilometres to experience the "first new year programme of Kashmir".

Satish Kumar and his family had come from Delhi in the hopes of celebrating the new year in Kashmir.

"It is our first visit to Kashmir and to be honest we were disappointed at not finding much snow. However, this electric atmosphere has more than made up for that disappointment. We are feeling at home, though it is a little colder than Delhi here," Kumar said.

While the celebrations were being held with gusto, the authorities are not taking any chances as adequate security arrangements have been put in place to prevent any untoward incident.

A senior police official said law enforcing agencies are maintaining a tight vigil around Lal Chowk.

"We want to ensure that locals and tourists have a good time here and everyone takes back good memories from here," the official said.