Partial shutdown in Kashmir on Afzal Guru’s death anniversary

Partial shutdown in Kashmir Valley on Tuesday marked the eighth death anniversary of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, who was secretly hanged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail this day in 2013.

While shops, public transport, and other business establishments remained closed in the old city of Srinagar, private transport was seen plying almost normally. However, shops and business establishments remained open in civil lines areas of the city.

Unlike previous years, this time the impact of the strike was far less in other district headquarters of Kashmir, reports said. Authorities had made elaborate security arrangements in Srinagar and other sensitive areas of the valley to maintain law and order.

In the previous years, separatists would issue strike calls in advance on February 9 to press their demand for the return of Afzal’s mortal remains to his family. They would also call for a strike on February 11 demanding the return of the mortal remains of Maqbool Bhat, founder of the JKLF, who was hanged in the same prison on February 11, 1984. After both the executions, the bodies were buried within the precincts of the jail.

However, since the abrogation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 in August 2019 and subsequent crackdown on separatists, no such strike calls have been issued. Even the local media doesn't publish any statements coming from separatist groups. Most of the separatist leaders have been jailed or gone in hibernation in the last two years.