Srinagar locals offer prayers for peace in New Year - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

As the whole world celebrates the arrival of New Year 2010 with music and party, the locals in Srinagar here chose to pray for peace and harmony on Friday. People offered prayers for a peaceful year ahead. "We prayed that the New Year should be good for the people of Kashmir. There should be no strikes, conditions should remain good so that tourism remains unaffected," said Sajad Ahmad Bhat, a student. Earlier on Thursday, the locals celebrated their New Year along with tourists in the open at Gulmar around sixty kilometers form here. Music, dance, comic shows and crackers marked the celebrations on Thursday. The authorities had decorated the Gulmarg to beckon the visitors. "I am feeling good because I have never enjoyed snow before. I am really enjoying the natural beauty of Kashmir valley because my mom is born and brought up here, and I am first time here," said Pinki Sharma, a tourist from Mumbai. Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and his family enjoyed skiing at Gulmarg on Thursday. Abdullah wished New Year 2010 to bring peace and prosperity to the state and development works in the troubled state will continue. "We would expect to get more success in our programmes of development, political dialogue and of giving a new shape to the state," he said.