Normal life in Kashmir remained affected for the ninth consecutive day on Sunday due to a strike called by hardline Hurriyat Conference to protest against hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, and press for return of his body to his family. Shops and business establishments remained closed while public transport stayed off the roads due to the strike called by the Hurriyat faction headed by Syed Ali Shah Geelani.
The Hurriyat had called for a seven-day shutdown in the Valley following Guru’s execution inside Tihar Jail on February 9, even as the authorities had imposed curfew due to apprehensions of law and order problems. As the authorities lifted curfew, Geelani extended the strike by two days in support of the demand that Guru’s body be handed over to his family for last rites.
Though some incidents of stone pelting were witnessed in a few places yesterday, the situation across the Valley remained peaceful so far on Sunday, a police spokesman said. Curfew was yesterday lifted from all the ten districts of the Valley and mobile Internet services was restored, a week after the restrictions were imposed following hanging of Guru.
Meanwhile, rain lashed several parts of the Valley with the famous ski resort of Gulmarg reeling under severe cold conditions at a low of minus 11.2 degrees Celsius.
