Separatist strike call affects life in Indian-controlled Kashmir

A shutdown call by various separatist groups on Sunday paralyzed normal life in Muslim majority areas of Indian-controlled Kashmir including capital city-Srinagar, officials said. The strike call was given to protest the arrival of Indian troops in the region way back on October 27, 1947. Every year complete shutdown is observed on Oct. 27 as a mark of protest across the region. The authorities fearing clashes in Srinagar city and other towns deployed paramilitary troopers and policemen at sensitive places to prevent clashes and protest demonstrations. Shops and business establishments remained closed and traffic on roads remained disrupted to a large extent. At some places private vehicles were seen plying. Similar reports were received from other district headquarters and townships as well. "The situation is under control. We haven't received any report of untoward incident from anywhere," said a police official in Srinagar. Indian troopers entered Indian-controlled Kashmir after region' s the then Hindu ruler-Maharaja Hari Singh requested New Delhi to stall an incursion of tribesmen backed by Pakistan. The autocratic Maharaja had remained indecisive on whether to enter the dominion of India or Pakistan and was eager to stay independent. After Indian troops landed in Kashmir and sabotaged the tribal invasion, Kashmir issue was taken to United Nations with both India and Pakistan as the parties claiming the region in full. A United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) has offices in Srinagar and Muzaffarabad. The offices were set up in 1949 to monitor the ceasefire line, now know as line of control (LoC), dividing Kashmir into two parts. The authorities have placed the hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani and chairman of pro-independent group Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Mohammed Yasin Malik under house arrest. Meanwhile police detained another separatist leader Shahbir Ahmad Shah and his supporters after they tried to march to UNMOGIP office. Anti-India sentiment runs deep in the psyche of majority of Kashmiris seeking end of New Delhi's rule. A guerrilla war is also going on between militants and Indian troops stationed in the restive region since 1989.