Kashmir valley stays shut for 2nd day to protest NIA raids against separatists

SRINAGAR: Kashmir Valley remained shut on the second consecutive day on Thursday in response to a call issued by separatists against the National Investigation Agency (NIA) raids on their homes and offices and the legal challenge to Article 35A of the Constitution.

Shops and other businesses across the Valley remained close whereas only private cars and auto-rickshaws were seen plying on the roads. “Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL)”, the alliance of key separatist leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik, which had given the call for the two-day strike, termed the response it evoked in the Valley and parts of Chenab valley of Jammu region as “satisfactory”.

The NIA sleuths had in connection with an alleged terror-funding case raided the homes of Mr Mirwaiz and Mr Malik to conduct searches on Tuesday. Mr Malik is currently under “preventive custody” of the J&K police. The NIA conducted searches also in the homes of Shabir Ahmed Shah (who is currently lodged in Delhi’s Tihar jail), Muhammad Ashraf Sahrai, Nayeem Geelani (elder son of separatist patriarch Syed Ali Shah Geelani) and Zaffar Akbar Bhat.