Mujtaba Wani
SRINAGAR: Normal life in Kashmir has been affected due to a strike called by the joint advisory council of separatists to demand the return of Mohammad Afzal Guru’s body to his family.
Shops are closed in the capital Srinagar and other major towns of the valley. Transport has been affected. However banks and schools functioned normally.
Police and paramilitaries have been deployed in strength to avert violence in sensitive areas.
The Mutahida Majlis e Mashawarat (MMM), or a joint council of various separatist groups formed to chalk out a strategy of protests for the return of Guru’s body, had asked people to observe a shutdown to press for the demand.
India’s Home Minister has outrightly denied that the body will be returned, but separatists have said they will continue to protest until their demand is met.
Disrupted
Normal life has been disrupted in the valley since Feb 9 when Afzal Guru was hanged in Delhi’s Tihar jail. Six people have been killed since then, mostly by security forces. Kashmir valley has been under curfew or observed shutdowns for nearly 20 days now.
The valley was placed under a curfew for seven consecutive days after Guru’s execution. The situation had just started limping back to normal when the mysterious death of a Kashmiri student in Hyderabad caused a fresh wave of unrest.
Many in Kashmir believe that Mudasir Kamran, a PhD scholar was killed by “Hindu fanatics” or the police after his participation in protest demonstrations over Guru’s execution. The Hyderabad police say he committed suicide.
Then a 27-year-old youth, Tahir Ahmed Sofi was shot dead by the Army in north Kashmir’s Baramulla town.
The latest to come was the killing of Altaf Ahmed Wani who died on Wednesday afternoon in firing by paramilitary CRPF in Saidapora area near Eidgah in Srinagar.
The incident happened barely hours after 5 CRPF personnel were killed after militants attacked their camp at Bemina in Srinagar.
The killing has caused deep shock and anger in Kashmir valley, where a 23 year old armed resistance against New Delhi’s rule is waning.
Jammu and Kashmir Assembly Speaker Mubarak Gul, who represents the Eidgah assembly constituency, said the late Wani was associated with the ruling National Conference and had no connection with any separatist group.
Nasir Aslam Wani, provincial president of the NC, called the man’s killing a “cold-blooded murder” and asked for a judicial probe into the firing incident.
Authorities have justified the curfew saying it “saved lives”.
The fresh strike programme by the separatists’ council has also urged Indian activists to protest at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Saturday for the return of Afzal Guru’s body for burial in the valley.
