SRINAGAR: Life has been disrupted in Kashmir due to a shutdown called by senior separatist leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, to protest against the killings by paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Shopian district.
Shops, schools and business establishments are closed and traffic has been affected.
Police and paramilitaries have been deployed in strength to prevent violence.
Five people have been killed in Gagren village in the past two weeks by the CRPF – four on September 7 and one on September 11.
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The government has already ordered a magisterial inquiry into these killings. Mr Geelani and other separatist leaders have dismissed the order of the inquiry saying it was an eyewash.
The octogenarian leader has also called upon people to prepare for a pro-active resistance against Indian rule in the state.
‘Not Enough’
Mr Geelani has said it is not enough for the “freedom-loving” to hold protest demonstrations after the Indian security forces have committed an atrocity.
“Instead there needs to be a continuity in our struggle in order to shake the conscience of the international community,” he said.
He has said that the “long silence” adopted by the people of Kashmir after the 2010 unrest has encouraged the security forces to plan “systematic killings of our youths.”
“It is evident by the incidents in Markundal, Gool and now Shopian.”
Mr Geelani has indicated that he will issue a protest calendar in coming days. Last week, the valley shut for two days over a similar call given by him.
The separatist leader has been under house arrest for a long time now.
Earlier on Wednesday he was taken into preventive custody by the police after he tried to step out of his residence and march towards the UN Military Observers office at Sonwar in Srinagar to submit a memorandum.
