Srinagar: A protest shutdown called by the Joint Resistance Leadership against the killing of PhD scholar Manan Wani, along with his associate in an encounter with government forces yesterday, affected normal life across the Kashmir Valley on Friday.
Shops and other businesses establishments are mainly closed in Srinagar and other districts of the Valley, reports said. Public transport also is largely shut even as skeletal private transport plies in Srinagar and other district headquarters in the Valley. Heavy deployment of police and Centre Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has been made in Srinagar city and other sensitive places in the Valley and restrictions have been put on the public movement, official sources said.
The authorities have also closed schools and colleges in most parts of the Valley. Kashmir university also suspended class work following student protests in Zakura campus against Manan’s killing. The rail services between the Valley and Bannihal town of Jammu region have been suspended.
The Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) comprising Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik called for the shutdown against the killings of Manan and his associate in Kupwara district on Thursday.
A scholar-turned-militant Manan Wani was killed with government forces along with associate in native Kupwara district yesterday, nine months after he formally quit a PhD at the Aligarh Muslim University and joined Hizb-ul-Mujahideen ranks.
Manan and his associate, Ashiq Hussain Zargar son of Ghulam Mohi-ud-din Zargar of Tulwari Langate were killed in the gunfight with police’s SOG and Army at Shartgund Balla area of Handwara in the frontier district.
