Thaindian News

Srinagar, April 9 (IANS) Normal life was affected Saturday in Jammu and Kashmir’s summer capital Srinagar as the separatists called a shutdown to protest the killing of Islamic cleric Maulana Showkat Shah.

Both the moderate and the hardline groups of the Hurriyat conference led by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Syed Ali Geelani, and the pro-freedom Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) led by Muhammad Yasin Malik had called the protest shutdown against the murder of the Islamic cleric.

While the Hurriyat groups have called for a day’s strike Saturday, the JKLF has called for a two-day strike.

Markets, educational institutions and business establishments remained closed in Srinagar while attendance in government offices, banks and post offices was very thin.

Skeletal private transport and three-wheelers, however, moved on the roads here.

The strike was total in both the uptown and the old city areas of Srinagar city.

Heavy deployment of police and paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has been made by the authorities to maintain law and order here.

Tension had gripped Srinagar after the religious leader was killed in a cycle bomb explosion outside the Ahilhadith mosque in Gaw Kadal area of uptown Srinagar Friday afternoon.

“No untoward incident has taken place anywhere in the city and we are on high alert to maintain law and order here,” a senior police officer told IANS.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah air-dashed to Srinagar from winter capital Jammu Saturday morning to express condolences to the family of the slain religious leader.

Abdullah spent some time with the bereaved family at their Lal Bazar residence in the city. He also consoled the son and two brothers of the slain cleric.

Shah was the cleric Of the Jamiat-e-Ahilhadith - a highly puritanical group of Muslims closer to the Wahabi school of thought in Saudi Arabia, which has gained a large following in the Kashmir Valley in recent years.