Normal life affected in Jammu & Kashmir due to separatists' strike against civilian killing

Srinagar: Normal life was affected in Kashmir on Friday due to a strike called by separatists to protest the killing of a civilian following an encounter between terrorists and security forces in Pulwama district. Most of the shops, fuel stations and other business establishments were shut in Srinagar -- the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said. Public transport was off the roads, but a few private cars, cabs and auto-rickshaws were seen plying in some areas of the city, they said.

The authorities ordered the closure of schools and colleges in Srinagar as a precautionary measure in view of the strike, the officials said. They said similar reports of shutdown were received from other district headquarters of the Valley.

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The separatists -- under the banner of Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) -- on Thursday asked people to observe a shutdown on Friday against civilian killings during the month of Ramzan.The civilian, Rayees Dar, was killed on Thursday after an encounter between terrorists and security forces in Pulwama district of the state.

Six terrorists and a soldier were also killed in encounters with security forces in Shopian and Pulwama districts on Thursday. A youth, who had sustained grievous injuries in clashes during protests at Pattan in Baramulla district against the rape of a three-year-old girl in Bandipore, died at SKIMS hospital here on Wednesday night.