Srinagar: The hard-line faction of Hurriyat Conference has called for a shutdown to protest the assassination of former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto on Friday. However, the assassination and the following shutdown have evoked a mixed response.
Almost all the mainstream and separatist groups in Kashmir have condemned the killing of Bhutto.
The Kashmir University also announced cancellation of all examinations of post-graduate and under-graduate classes scheduled for Friday as a precautionary measure.
"The next date for the examinations would be announced later," a spokesman of the university, said. Though shops and business establishments in some parts of the city remained closed, all modes of transport plied on all routes, officials told a news agency.
Police used batons to disperse stone throwing youths who took to streets in Nowhatta area close to Jamia Masjid in downtown Srinagar.
"We have further beefed up security in the area after the stone pelting incident this morning," a police officer told IANS. The authorities feared more trouble after the Friday prayers in the afternoon.
CNN-IBN reports that though there have been protests in Srinagar, the situation is largely peaceful.
Shops and businesses were shut in summer capital Srinagar, where the authorities reinforced security and sounded an alert immediately after Bhutto's killing in a suicide attack in Rawalpindi Thursday.
Mobs shouted pro-Bhutto slogans in the Shia majority Zadibal locality of Srinagar, where tyres were burnt to obstruct traffic movement. Angry youth also stoned passing vehicles in the locality.
Barring Lal chowk, Regal chowk and Residency road, shops and business establishments in the city remained open, they said, adding the attendance in government offices was normal.
With Agency inputs
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