Hurriyat Conference calls for J&K shutdown on February 9, 11

Since August 5, all top separatist leaders in the Valley have been detained. Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq are presently under house arrest in Srinagar.

The Hurriyat Conference on Friday called for a shutdown across Jammu and Kashmir on February 9 and 11 — the first such call the group has made since the state’s special status was revoked on August 5.

The Yasin Malik-led Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), which was banned by the Centre last year, also called for a shutdown in valley on the same days. While February 9 marks the anniversary of the hanging of 2001 Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, February 11 is the anniversary of the hanging of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front founder Maqbool Bhat — hanged on February 11, 1984.

A statement issued by the All Party Hurriyat Conference on Friday also called upon the “international community to take note of the happenings in and the clampdown unleashed by the Government of India (GOI)”.

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It urged world bodies, especially global human rights organisations, to facilitate “the return of the mortal remains of Bhat and Guru to their families for burial in their own land in Kashmir.”

Since August 5, all top separatist leaders in the Valley have been detained. Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq are presently under house arrest in Srinagar.