Restrictions were imposed on Friday in a Srinagar city and the Anantnag district in Indian Occupied Kashmir to prevent protests against the killing of a teenage Muslim truck driver who was burned to death over suspicions that he was transporting beef.
Senior separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani, Miwaiz Umer Farooq, Muhammad Yasin Malik and others were placed under house arrest to prevent their participation in the protests.
Veteran Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Geelani had called for protests after Friday prayers over the youth’s killing in Udhampur.
“Restrictions have been imposed in Rainawari, Khanyar, Nowhatta, MR Gunj, Safakadal, and Maisuma areas of Srinagar city on Friday.
Restrictions have also been imposed in Bijbehara and Anantnag towns.
Zahid Rasool Bhat, 18, the truck driver who died Sunday of burns, was buried Monday in his village, Botengo, in South Kashmir.
Hindu militants are suspected of carrying out the attack, in which gasoline bombs were reportedly thrown into his vehicle on October 9. The incident was caught on security cameras.
The victim was reportedly carrying coal in his truck, not beef.
It was the third instance in recent weeks in which a Muslim man has been killed over beef rumours.
In another recent case, a mob killed a Muslim man for allegedly smuggling cattle from India’s Himachal Pradesh last week.
Last month, a man namely Muhammad Akhlaq in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh was lynched by a mob over false rumors that he had been eating beef.
For Hindus, cows are worshipped as sacred and killing the animal is banned in many states of India, a majority-Hindu country that also has sizeable Muslim, Christian and Buddhist minorities.
In March, the state of Maharashtra toughened its ban to make even possessing beef illegal, a move seen by religious minorities as a sign of the growing power of hardliner Hindus, since nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power.