Markets and businesses were closed yesterday in Jammu and Kashmir in protest against the recent killings of two civilians allegedly by security forces.
A 19-year-old student and a young woman died after troops fired on a demonstration on Sunday, according to leaders from the separatist Hurriyat Conference who called the strike.
Police said the woman died in a cross-fire during a security forces’ operation against rebels in the area; the student died from injuries after being hit on the head by a tear-gas shell.
The militants fled from the scene as the crowd pelted police with stones, police said.
Yesterday, troops erected barricades and placed barbed wire at various places in the state capital Srinagar to enforce curfew-like restrictions to prevent protests.
Additional police and paramilitary officers were deployed in Pulwama, Srinagar and other major towns in the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley. Shops and private offices were closed and public transport was not in service.
State officials said a magisterial inquiry had been ordered into the civilian casualties.  Separatist leaders accuse the security forces of widespread human rights violations in the state and have urged rights activists to raise the issue.
lBharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah yesterday authorised party leader Ram Madhav to to finalise government formation with Peoples’ Democratic Party leader Mehbooba Mufti, sources said.
There has been a political stalemate in Kashmir after the PDP president told reporters that she needed a pledge of “confidence building measures” from the central government to head a stable coalition with the BJP.
The sources said Mehbooba Mufti had declined to discuss any government formation arrangements with the BJP before the 40-day mourning period for her father, late chief minister Mufti Mohamed Sayeed, ended.