Kashmiris protest murder of Hizb commander

SRINAGAR: Most shops and businesses were closed in held Kashmir on Friday after a militant group called a strike to protest the killing of one of its commanders by government forces.

There were no vehicles or pedestrians on the streets in the morning, but traffic resumed in the afternoon as people headed to mosques for Friday prayers. Schools were closed around the Kashmir Valley. Meanwhile, four people, including a politician, died in the latest violence in Kashmir ahead of the final round of India’s mammoth national elections, police said Friday. Suspected militants overnight shot Jameel Ahmed, a youth leader of India’s main opposition Congress party, and he “died in hospital this (Friday) morning”, a police official told AFP.

Ahmed was attacked in southern Doda district, part of Udhampur-Doda that votes May 10 with the Ladakh constituency in the last leg of the staggered national polls. In other violence Friday, police said militants shot dead a Muslim and his brother-in-law after abducting them in northern Sopore town. —AFP

Home | National