SRINAGAR: A complete shutdown was observed in north Kashmir’s Pattan town and adjoining areas for the third day after two local militants were killed in a gunfight with the army and police.
Late evening on Tuesday, Aqib Rashid and Bilal Ahmed, residents of Palhallan, were killed in Goshbug village in a gunfight with security forces.
Shops and business establishments remained shut even today and transport was off the roads.
Authorities imposed curfew like restrictions in palhallan town where a journalist said violent clashes between protestors and the police and paramilitaries erupted in the afternoon.
Similar clashes were also witnessed in Paramahalla area.
Violence, that has killed tens of thousands of persons in Kashmir, has come down significantly in the past ten years.
However authorities say there might be a fresh escalation in violence in the coming months in the valley where anti-India sentiment still runs deep among the people.
Reports suggest that militant groups in the valley have been making fresh recruitment and have also carried out many daring attacks on security forces this year.
