Pro-freedom parties stage mass protests in occupied Kashmir valley
02 March, 2013
SRINAGAR: Shops and other businesses were shut in most parts of the occupied Jammu and Kashmir on Friday in response to a shutdown call by freedom movement's leaders demanding that the body Afzal Guru, who was executed February 9, by the Indian government be returned to his family. Indian authorities have imposed restrictions in the wake of mass protests. "Adequate steps have been taken to monitor the law and order situation," a senior Indian police officer told local media. There was heavy deployment of police and paramilitary troopers in the Jammu and Kashmir including capital Srinagar and other major towns of occupied valley. Public transport was off the roads though some private vehicles were seen while all institutes including schools, colleges, banks and other public and private offices were remained close across the valley. Indian security forces stopped pedestrian and vehicular movement in the old city or uptown areas in Srinagar. The Muttahida Majlis-e-Mushawarat (MMM) of separatist groups had sought the return of Afzal Guru's body to his family and called for a protest shutdown on Friday. The pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) has also called for protests. The MMM has been issuing weekly protest calendars to continue the struggle for the return of Afzal Guru's body to his family. The same demand has been raised by other liberation parties of the valley. On February 9, Afzal Guru was hung till death at the Tihar jail in New Delhi and buried near his solitary cell. He was sentenced to death for his alleged role in the attack on Indian Parliament House on December 13, 2001. End.
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