Separatists protest killing of Kashmir religous leader

[News_Editor]

Separatists protest killing of Kashmir religous leader

2011-04-10 02:02:51 GMT+7 (ICT)

SRINAGAR, KASHMIR (BNO NEWS) -- The city of Srinagar in Kashmir was paralyzed on Saturday after separatists called a strike to protest against the killing of a prominent religious leader, the Hindustan Times reported.

Markets, educational institutions and business establishments were closed, while attendance in government offices, banks and post offices was very thin. Police were deployed around the city to prevent any incidents, a day after Moulvi Showkat Ahmad Shah was killed in a blast outside a mosque in Srinagar, the capital of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir.

Shah was the cleric of the Jamiat-e-Ahilhadith, a highly puritanical group of Muslims closer to the Wahabi school of thought in Saudi Arabia which has gained a large following in the Kashmir Valley in recent years. Shah was closely associated with Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik, who has survived a number of attempts on his life.

The JKLF and the hardline groups of the Hurriyat conference called the protest shutdown against the murder of the cleric.

A guerrilla war has been going on between militants and the Indian troops stationed in Muslim-majority Kashmir, which is divided into parts administered by India and Pakistan. The government says more than 45,000 people -including civilians, militants and troops - have died in the region over the past two decades.

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