SRINAGAR: Life has been disrupted in Kashmir due to a shutdown called by separatists to support the demand for handing over the body of Mohammad Afzal Guru, who was hanged and buried at Delhi’s Tihar Jail.
Shops and business establishments in Srinagar are closed while banks and government offices are functioning.
Traffic has been little affected in uptown Srinagar, but public transport remained off the roads in other major towns of the valley.
Hundreds of policemen donning riot gear have been deployed in the sensitive areas of valleys’ major towns to prevent violence.
Guru was hanged on Feb 9 for plotting the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament attack which killed fourteen people including five attackers.
After the execution, three youth died during clashes between protesters and the police and paramilitaries in Kashmir, and a seven-day curfew ended late Friday last.
However, normalcy returned only on Monday as senior separatist leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani asked people to observe a shutdown until Sunday last.
The fresh strike comes after Geelani’s Hurriyat Conference asked people to continue their protest to demand that Guru’s mortal remains be returned for a “proper Islamic burial” in the valley.
The octogenarian leader has asked people to observe a shutdown on Thursday and post Friday prayers and also to wait for another protest programme.
This will continue “until the remains of the martyr are returned”, Geelani’s party said.
Guru’s family has written to the union Home Ministry seeking his body, amid support from all political parties of the state.
Separatist have reserved an empty grave for Guru at the “Martyr’s graveyard” in Srinagar.
“We are waiting for his body which lies with government of India as a trust,” reads its epitaph.
