Srinagar, Feb 09: Normal life in Kashmir was affected Saturday due to a strike called by the separatists to mark the sixth death anniversary of Parliament attack convict Mohammad Afzal Guru, who was hanged on this day in 2013.
Shops and other business establishments remained closed while public transport remained off the roads due to the shutdown called by the separatists.
Separatists Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL), consisting of both factions of Hurriyat Conference and Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), had called for a shutdown to press for their demand that Guru’s mortal remains be returned for burial in Kashmir.
Authorities had placed Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and several other separatist leaders under house-arrest to prevent them from holding any protest marches.
Police and paramilitary forces were deployed in strength at vulnerable places across the Valley for maintaining law and order.
Guru was hanged and buried inside New Delhi’s Tihar jail on February 09, 2013. He is survived by his wife, Tabassum and 18-year old son, Ghalib, who live in Tarzoo village near north Kashmir’s Sopore town.
“Kashmir today remembers and pays rich tributes to #ShaheedAfzalGuru on his 6th martyrdom anniversary. Hanged and buried in secrecy in #TiharJail against all norms of justice and humanity to “satisfy the collective conscience of a state”!” Mirwiaiz said in a tweet.
