Srinagar, Jul 11: A protest shutdown called by the separatists together with the restrictions imposed by the authorities affected life adversely across the Kashmir Valley on Wednesday.
Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) of separatist trio Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik, had called for the Valley-wide shutdown against the “continuing killings of civilians by the Indian security forces”.
Two militants and two civilians were killed and over 100 civilian protesters injured during a gunfight in south Kashmir’s Shopian district on Tuesday.
A man — Muhammad Ishaq Naikoo — died of shock after being misinformed that his son, Zeenat, who recently joined militant ranks, was trapped at the site of the firefight. While Naikoo died of cardiac arrest, a youth, Tamsheel Ahmad Khan, died at a hospital after receiving bullet injury during clashes with the government forces.
The militants killed were identified as Sameer Ahmad Sheikh from Shopian and a Pakistani national, Babar, — both belonging to the Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) outfit.
Shops, other businesses, public transport and educational institutions remained closed in Srinagar and other district headquarters of the Valley on Wednesday even though private transport and some three wheelers were seen moving on uptown and city outskirts here.
The shutdown call did not, however, affect the passage of Amarnath pilgrims to the two base camps of Baltal and Pahalgam.
Authorities had made heavy deployments of police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in the old city areas here and other sensitive places who enforced restrictions on civilian movement under section 144 of CrPC in five police station areas — Khanyar, Maharajgunj, Nowhatta, Safakadal and Rainawari – “as a precautionary measure to maintain law and order”.
Train services between Baramulla town of the Valley and the Bannihal town in Jammu region were also suspended as a precautionary measure.
Mobile Internet services also remained suspended in most parts of south Kashmir.
