Life was disrupted across Kashmir Valley today following a two-day strike called by the hardline faction of Hurriyat Conference to protest killing of youths in alleged CRPF firing.
Government offices, educational institutions, banks, semi-government offices and other establishments were closed
and traffic was off the road, officials said.
Shops and business markets are also closed in the city and elsewhere in the Valley, they said.
The moderate Hurriyat headed by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq had also asked people to come out on the streets to protest peacefully against the killing of youths.
A statement issued by hardline faction of Hurriyat general
secretary Masrat Alam Bhat has asked people to observe two
days strike on June 29 and June 30 to protest against the youth killings.
The women's separatist outfit Dukhtarain-e-illat and Kashmir Bar Association have extended their support to the strike called by hardline Hurriyat and appealed masses to make the protest successful.
While, most of the leaders and activists of hardline faction of Hurriyat, including its chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani, have been arrested and slapped Public Safety Act, the moderate faction of Hurriyat leaders have been placed under house arrest since yesterday.
In addition, several top separatist leaders, including JKLF chairman Mohammad Yaseen Malik, National Front chairman
Nayeem Ahmad Khan and Muslim Khawateen Markaz chief Yasmeen Raja were arrested yesterday.
Meanwhile, a human rights body today criticised home secretary GK Pillai's statement on the civilian deaths in Jammu and Kashmir.
"By condoning and rationalising the deplorable actions of the CRPF and police, Pillai characterised civilians fired upon by security personnel as people who were culpable as they violated curfew. It is an evidence of the patronage that the security forces enjoy here," International People's Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Indian Administered Kashmir (IPTK) convener Angana Chatterji told reporters here.
Pillai had yesterday said that people who break curfew and attack police posts cannot be termed as "innocent civilians".
"In a place where curfew is imposed, people break curfew, go ahead and attack police posts, CRPF posts. I don't think you can call them by any stretch of imagination innocent civilians," the Home Secretary had said to a news channel.
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