Major towns in Kashmir Valley were shut on Thursday to protest against the police crackdown on Muslim separatists and their supporting local youth.
The call for the strike, which closed marketplaces and disrupted transport services across the scenic Himalayan region, was issued by hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani.
At places, the call, however, evoked only a partial response. Security had been beefed up ahead of the strike and in vulnerable areas, the police laid concertina barbed wire to restrict public movement.
Though the octogenarian separatist leader had extended the call to PoK too, reports from across the LoC said that it found no takers as shops, others businesses, educational institutions and government offices were open and transport plied on the roads as usual.
The police had, on the eve of or during the recently-held Lok Sabha elections, arrested or detained more than 2,000 political activists and alleged known or potential stone-pelting youth and other troublemakers.
Mr Geelani had served an ultimatum on the government to stop what he alleged are repressive measures, including random arrests and torture of youth in police custody, before May 13 or be prepared to face another spell of mass uprising.
J&K DGP, Ashok Prasad, said the arrests were a preventive measure and that the youth are being released since the election process has ended peacefully. He said, “In fact, we have already released many of them although chronic stone-pelters would be dealt with accordance to relevant provisions of the law.”
He strongly denied anyone was being targeted in reprisal to the separatists’ election boycott diktat that majority of voters in predominantly Kashmir Valley chose to obey.
Meanwhile, 14 boys and teenagers were released and restored to their parents in Sopore town after counselling by the police