Barring parts of south Kashmir, life returns to normal in the valley

Srinagar, Jul 22: Life returned to normalcy on Friday in Kashmir valley after remaining crippled for a day on Thursday due to a strike called by separatists against civilian killings and assassination of senior Journalist and Rising Kashmir Editor-In-Chief Shujaad Bukhari.

However, business and other activities remained paralyzed in parts of south Kashmir, where four militants, a civilian and a jawan were killed in an encounter in Anantnag on Friday.

Shops and business establishments were doing normal business and traffic on all routes was plying normally in summer capital, Srinagar, and other major towns and tehsil headquarters in the valley.

All the shops were open in the main business hubs in civil lines, including historic Lal Chowk, Gonikhan, Residency Road, Maulana Azad Road, Mahraj Bazar, Batamaloo, Iqbal Park, Dalgate, Regal Chowk and Budshah Chowk.

Meanwhile, the main gates of Jamia Masjid, stronghold of moderate Hurriyat Conference (HC) chairman Mirwaiz Moulvi Omar Farooq, which were closed on Thursday, were open and devotees offered Friday prayers in the historic mosque.

The Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) -- comprising of Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Moulvi Omar Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik -- had called for a protest shutdown against the civilian killings and assassination of Bukhari.

Reports of normalcy were also received from other parts of the Valley, including Baramulla, Sopore, Bandipora and Pattan in north Kashmir, where security forces remained deployed in some sensitive areas to prevent any law and order problem.

However, as soon as the reports about the killing of four militant in an encounter with security forces in the Srigufwara, spread in Anantnag, scores of youth hit the streets at many places and clashed with forces deployed in the area. Shops and business establishments were closed and traffic was off the roads in Anantnag town.

A complete shutdown was also being observed for the third successive day on Friday at Tral in south Kashmir district of Pulwama against the killing of three Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militants in an encounter on Tuesday.