Life across Kashmir came to a grinding on the second consecutive day on Friday as the strike call by the Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) against the assault on Article 35A evoked a total response.Most of Hurriyat leaders continued to remain under house detention and preventive custody to keep them from leading protests.Amid exemplary shutdown, reports said that there were protest demonstrations at Bagh-i-Mehtab, Chanapora, Natipora, Nowakadal, Noorbagh, Parimpora in Srinagar and parts of Baramulla district.Shops and business establishments were closed across the Valley while all kinds of transport remained off the roads due to the strike called by the JRL.Schools, colleges and universities too remained shut on the second consecutive day, and government offices registered very thin attendance, including the main seat of the government, the civil secretariat.Apprehending big protests, authorities deployed government forces in strength across downtown Srinagar.
Restrictions were imposed within the jurisdiction of five police stations including MR Gunj, Khanyar, Rainawari, Nowhatta, Safa Kadal besides Maisuma and Kral Khud.No Friday prayers were allowed in historic Jamia Masjid, first time after new governor assumed office earlier this month. Reports of the complete shutdown were also received from other districts of the Kashmir besides some parts of Jammu region.The JRL, comprising Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik had called for a two-day protest shutdown on August 30 and 31 to protest the series of petitions filed in the Supreme Court challenging the validity of article 35A.The law grants special citizenship rights to the people of J&K and bars outsiders from buying land and other properties in the Muslim-majority state. The Supreme Court, has, however, deferred the case until the second week of January.Resistance leaders continued to remain caged in their homes. Hurriyat Conference (G) chairman Syed Ali Geelani continued confined to his Hyderpora residence, while Hurriyat Conference (M) chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has been under house confinement since Thursday. (GNS)