SRINAGAR: Special prayers were held for Mohammad Afzal Guru during the first Friday congregations across the valley after his hanging.
Fridays hold significance among Muslims and afternoon prayer congregations on this day are larger than during rest of the days.
Although no prayers were conducted in major mosques – the Jamia Masjid in old city – today in view of the curfew, prayers were held in mosques located in the interiors of the valley.
Residents said that in many mosques – especially in north Kashmir – Guru was hailed as a martyr for “the Kashmir cause”.
Muhammad Afzal Guru was hanged at Delhi’s Tihar jail on Saturday. He is buried there.
His family has written a letter to the union Home Ministry demanding that his body be returned for burial in the valley.
People have reserved a grave for Guru at the Martyr’s cemetery alongside the one reserved for Maqbool Bhat.
The epitaph describes him as ‘martyr of the homeland’. It reads that “the people of Kashmir are waiting for his body to be buried here”.
