Complete shutdown in IHK

ISLAMABAD/SRINAGAR: A complete shutdown was observed across Kashmir and Chenab Valley in Jammu region for the second consecutive day on Sunday, to mourn the killings of 11 Kashmiris by Indian troops.

According to Kashmir Media Service (KMS), the youth were martyred by Indian troops during a cordon and search operation and firing on protesters in Kharpora Sirnoo area of Pulwama district, Saturday.

Most of the martyrs were laid to rest on Saturday night while funerals of two martyrs Zahoor Ahmad Thoker and Abid Hussain Lone were offered in Sirnoo and Kareemabad on Sunday. Vociferous pro-freedom and anti-India slogans were raised on the occasion.

Today’s strike is part of the three-day shutdown call given by the Joint Resistance Leadership comprising Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik.

Indian authorities suspended mobile internet services in Srinagar and all other parts of the territory. Train service also continues to suspended in the territory.

On the call of JRL, a march will be conducted towards Indian army headquarters tomorrow in Badami Bagh, Srinagar, to register protest against the killings.

The Joint Resistance Leadership in a statement in Srinagar said, “It would be far better for India to finish Kashmiris, off once and for all as India is only interested in our territory and forcibly holding it while systematically eliminating the people.”

Meanwhile, the authorities have imposed strict restrictions to prevent the march however the Hurriyat leadership has asked the people to conduct the march against all odds. In view of the march the University of Kashmir Central Kashmir University and the Islamic University of Science and Technology have postponed all examinations scheduled to be held tomorrow.

Meanwhile thousands of people defying curfew and other restrictions participated in the funerals of 11 martyred youth in different areas of Pulwama district. Despite heavy deployment of Indian forces in the district people including elderly women and children poured in the native villages of the martyrs in South Kashmir to have their last glimpse.

Tehreek-e-Hurriyat Jammu and Kashmir Chairman Mohammad Ashraf Sehrai in a statement issued in Srinagar said that Indian forces personnel were deliberately hitting faces and heads of the protesters to kill them.

Indian police arrested Engineer Abdur Rasheed along with dozens of his followers during a march from Rajbagh to UN office in Sonawar Srinagar on Sunday. The protestors demanded implementation of the UN resolutions to end the bloodshed in Kashmir.

Anjuman Sharie Shian in a statement condemned the house arrest of party President Agha Syed Hassan Al-Moosvi Al-Safvi.

In Jakarta scores of people staged a protest demonstration against the massacre of Kashmiri civilians by Indian troops. The protesters including the relatives of an Indonesian woman who was rendered widow after the killing of her husband Abid Hussain Lone in the forces action in Pulwama on Saturday asked India to end bloodshed in the occupied territory.