Mujtaba Wani
SRINAGAR: Separatist leaders, jointly spearheading an ongoing campaign to demand the return of Afzal Guru’s body for burial in Kashmir, have said there will be no shutdown this week.
The Muttahida Majlis-e-Mashawarat (MMM) or a joint consultative committee of separatist parties has instead asked people to intensify a campaign on the Facebook and protest in mosques after Friday prayers.
Guru, a native of Kashmir, was hanged in Tihar jail and buried there on Feb 9. The union government has refused to return the body despite a formal request by the chief minister Omar Abdullah and some other mainstream political leaders.
The separatist committee says it will continue to protest till their demands are met. But it began cutting down protests since the past two weeks.
Last week’s programme only included a shutdown and protests only after Friday prayers. Earlier the MMM would issue programmes which included a shutdown on one day besides protests on almost all the others.
Observers say why the MMM has done this is not clear, but they refuse to rule out that the separatists have taken into consideration fatigue among people. Of late, they say, shutdowns have been getting a relatively meek response in general.
Six civilians were killed in violence after Guru’s execution on Feb 9 until March 13.
