Thousands of people on Thursday attended the funeral of a Lashkar-e-Toiba militant in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district who was killed in an overnight gunfight. The district observed a complete spontaneous shutdown amid clashes throughout the day.Eyewitnesses told Srinagar-based news agency GNS that soon after people heard about the killing of local Lashkar militant, Manzoor Ahmad of Alochi Bagh Pulwama, they turned up in thousands and marched towards his native village.The witnesses said that the mourners staged anti-India and pro-freedom protests in several parts of the district while there was a complete shutdown. They said the mourners thronged the village of the slain and participated in funeral procession.
The witnesses said that not once but the funeral of the slain was offered four times at various places including Eidgah Samboora and Alochi Bagh. In all these funerals nearly 30,000 people participated while women too were on the sidelines. The mourners raised pro-Islam, pro-militant and anti-India slogans.
The witnesses further said that soon after the burial of the slain in a local martyrs’ graveyard, the groups of youths took to streets at Kakpora, Murran, Pulwama Town and other areas and resorted to heavy stone-pelting on government forces who responded by firing teargas shells and pepper gas canisters. The entire district including Pampore, Kareemabad, Samboora, Kakpora and other areas shut down against the militants’ killings. (GNS)