According to Kashmir Media Service, the call for the shutdown was given by the Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) comprising Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik.
The leadership demands that the remains of Guru and another renowned Kashmiri liberation leader, Muhammad Maqbool Butt be returned from New Delhi’s Tihar Jail for a proper burial. The JRL has also called for a march towards Lal Chowk in Srinagar on Monday on the martyrdom anniversary of Butt.
The Indian authorities have put Gilani, Mirwaiz, Yasin and other leaders under house arrest to prevent them from participating in protests and programmes related to the martyrdom anniversaries.The authorities have also imposed restrictions in Doabgah, the native area of Guru in the Baramulla district to prevent people from visiting the family members of the martyred leader and expressing solidarity with them. Restrictions have also been imposed in different areas of Srinagar including Mahraj Gunj, Rainawari, Nowhatta, Safa Kadal, Khanyar and Maisuma to prevent protests and rallies.
Guru was hanged in New Delhi’s Tihar Jail on February 9, 2013 while Butt was hanged in the same jail on February 11, 1984. The bodies of the two martyrs remain buried in the jail.
Guru was hanged after a court found him guilty over his alleged role in the 2001 Parliament attack case in New Delhi. Normal life in Kashmir was affected on Saturday due to a strike called by freedom fighters 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 was off the roads due to the shutdown called by them, officials said. Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL), consisting of both factions of Hurriyat Conference and Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), called for a shutdown to press for their demand that Guru’s mortal remains be returned for burial in Kashmir.
Authorities have placed Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and several other Kashmiri leaders under house arrest to prevent them from holding any protest marches, the officials said.
Security personnel have been deployed in strength at vulnerable places across the valley for maintaining law and order, they said.Guru was hanged and buried inside New Delhi’s Tihar jail on February 9, 2013.
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