SRINAGAR-
About 200 separatist activists across Indian-occupied Kashmir were detained on Sunday by Indian troops in preparation to prevent demonstrations during a three-day strike marking the anniversaries of execution of separatists Mohammad Afzal Guru and Mohammad Maqbool Butt.
About 200 activists were arrested while the leaders were put under house arrest, said an Indian police officer on condition of anonymity.
According to Inspector General Abdul Gani Mir, a major part of the region was shut down under a curfew, main roads barricaded and wireless internet services were also suspended to prevent violent incidents.
Capital of Srinagar was also under a siege as shops remained closed and resident stayed indoors while police and paramilitary soldiers patrolled the city streets.
On February 9 of 1984, pro-independence leader Mohammad Maqbool Butt was hanged was hanged to death for killing an intelligence officer.
In February 2013, Mohammad Afzal Guru was secretly executed by Indian authorities in connection with an attack on the Indian Parliament in 2001 that killed 14 people.
The execution led to days of violent anti-India protests in the Muslim-majority region, where anti-India sentiment runs deep.
Both the separatists were executed in the same New Delhi jail.
Leaders of the freedom movement for Kashmir renewed demands recently that the two men’s remains, buried within the jail compound, be returned to the region for burial.
”The shutdown is called for pressing our demand for return of the mortal remains of our martyrs,” separatist leader Syed Ali Gillani said in a statement issued before he was detained at Srinagar’s airport Saturday after returning from New Delhi.
