SRINAGAR: Normal life in Kashmir remained affected for the ninth successive day today since the hanging of Afzal Guru at Delhi’s Tihar jail on Feb 9.
Senior separatist leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani had asked people to observe a shutdown till Sunday to protest the execution.
Shops and business establishments remained closed while public transport stayed off the roads.
The situation was largely peaceful, a police spokesman said. There were, however, reports of protesters clashing with the police and paramilitaries at SarafKadal and Rajouri Kadal in downtown Srinagar.
Geelani extended the shutdown call on Friday asking people to press for demands of bringing Guru’s body back to the valley for burial.
Guru is buried at the Tihar itself. His 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.
Life in the valley has been on a standstill ever since Guru’s execution as authorities imposed a curfew fearing violence on Saturday last.
The curfew was lifted yesterday.
