Pix: Shutdown in Kashmir to protest student's killing

The police on Friday afternoon detained pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik along with five of his associates in Srinagar where life was paralysed by a protest shutdown.

Malik was arrested after he attempted to takeout a protest march from Maisuma locality to Lal Chowk against the killing of an 18-year-old student Altaf Ahmad Sood in a firing by the Central Industries Security Force in Boniyar town of north Kashmir Baramulla town early this week.

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A big contingent of the police, paramilitary, the Central Reserve Police Force deployed in Maisuma prevented the JKLF activists from proceeding to Lal Chowk.

Meanwhile, life in Srinagar and other towns was paralysed by a protest shutdown called by the local traders against the killing of Sood. He was killed on spot after CISF personnel guarding a power station in Boniyar opened fire at villagers protesting power shortages in the area.

Friday's strike called by the Kashmir Economic Alliance, an amalgam of various trade bodies, shut shops, businesses and public transport in capital Srinagar and other towns. However, private transport was seen plying on the city roads.
 
Authorities have mounted security in  Srinagar and other towns to maintain law and order.

The state police has already arrested five personnel of the CISF and the state government has ordered a magisterial probe to be completed within a fortnight.

Kashmir has been in the throes of one of its worst electric power crisis this winter as the locals are braving sub-zero temperatures.

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