SRINAGAR: Senior separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani has called for shutdown on Thursday to protest against the killing of a youth in suburban Srinagar today.
Altaf Ahmed Wani was killed on Wednesday afternoon in firing by paramilitary CRPF in Saidapora area near Eidgah.
“India is denying political space to leaders and people of the state as a matter of policy. The authorities on the basis of power and high handedness are trying the curb the voices of the people of the state,” the octogenarian leader told a local news agency.
Geelani who heads the hardline faction of the separatist alliance Hurriyat Conference also said the attacks on security forces are a “natural phenomenon in the backdrop of the atrocities and state terrorism inflicted on the people”.
Meanwhile chairman of the moderate faction of the Hurriyat, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq has also called for a shutdown against the killing.
“This shows that due to the draconian laws like AFSPA, the forces can kill anyone, anywhere and at any time,” he said in a statement.
