Separatist shutdown stalls life in Kashmir

SRINAGAR - Life in summer capital Srinagar and other major towns of the Kashmir Valley was adversely affected Friday by a separatist shutdown called to protest the death penalty awarded to two locals in the 1996 Lajpat Nagar blast case.

Shops, public transport, business establishments and educational institutions remained closed here as the authorities imposed restrictions in five police station areas of the Old City to foil any violence by separatists.

Attendance in government offices was minimal due to the non-availability of public transport in the city.

“Restrictions are being enforced in some areas of the Old City to maintain law and order,” a senior police officer here said.

Reports from other district headquarters of Badgam, Pulwama, Anantnag, Shopian, Kulgam, Kupwara, Bandipora, Ganderbal and Baramulla also indicated that life was thrown out of gear due to the separatist shutdown.

Both groups of the separatist Hurriyat Conference, headed respectively by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Syed Ali Geelani, had called for a shutdown across the valley Friday after a court in Delhi Thursday awarded the death penalty to two Kashmiris in the May 2, 1996 Lajpat Nagar bomb blast case in which 13 people were killed.