Behind the calm

All in a day: A Peoples8217; Democratic Party activist Mohammad Yousuf Bhat was shot dead by militants in his house in Pulwama district, sources said on Wednesday. Militants barged into Bhat8217;s house and sprayed bullets on him, killing him on the spot. Bhat was an active member of the PDP in the Pulwama region. In another incident, separatist leaders JKLF chairman Mohammad Yaseen Malik and president of Democratic Freedom Party Shabir Ahmad Shah suffered minor injuries and were taken into preventive custody when they tried to present a memorandum to the local office of the UN military observers group for India and Pakistan in Srinagar on Wednesday. They were demanding the return of the mortal remains of JKLF founder Mohmd Maqbool Bhat and involvement of people of J-K in the Indo-Pak peace talks. Speaking at a function in Srinagar, Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed called on the militants to lay down their arms. 8216;8216;In the changed scenario, it does not look nice for youths to carry guns on their shoulders,8217;8217; he said. The 300-km Jammu-Srinagar national highway was closed to traffic on Wednesday following landslides triggered by heavy rains and snowing, officials said.