An Indian paramilitary soldier stands guard during a strike in Srinagar on February 16, 2013. PHOTO: AFP
Authorities declared the curfew in the region last weekend, shut down mobile Internet services and blocked newspapers to contain unrest over the execution of Mohammed Afzal Guru.
But as the curfew was lifted, groups opposed to Indian rule in the Muslim-majority region announced a two-day general strike that closed businesses, schools and banks and kept public transport off roads.
"The curfew has been lifted from all the areas and whatever restrictions you may see now are because of the shutdown," said Shiv Murari Sahai, a senior police official, told AFP in Kashmir's main city Srinagar.
Much of Kashmir remained under tight security with thousands of police and paramilitary forces deployed in riot gear.
Three people died during the week as demonstrators defied the curfew, including a teenaged boy shot by Indian security forces.
Guru was convicted of conspiring with militants who raided parliament in 2001 and brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war.
Politicians say the execution could feed anti-India feeling and fuel more violence in Kashmir, where a separatist conflict has claimed an estimated 100,000 lives over the last 20 years.
The one-time fruit merchant and medical college dropout had insisted he was innocent and that he was denied a proper legal defence. Protesters have accused police of framing him.
Guru's execution was mired in further controversy after his family said they learned about his death from television.
His family has rejected an offer by Indian authorities to pray at his graveside inside the prison where he was executed, insisting his body be buried in Kashmir.
A grave with headstone has been readied for Guru in the so-called "Martyrs' Graveyard" in Srinagar with an inscription reading: "His mortal remains are lying in trust with the government of India. The Kashmiri nation awaits its return."
COMMENTS (33)
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@Rashid: "never read that “Hindus burn the wife after her husband dies but Muslims don’t” in my textbooks when I was in class five. But anyway sati was practiced in India there is no doubt."
According to Pervez Hoodbhoy this was stated in 'The class-five Social Studies text (English), taught to 12-year olds, begins with citing the differences between Hindus and Muslims (e.g. Hindus burn the wife after her husband dies but Muslims don’t)'.
Also while no-one denies that Sati was a horrendous cultural practice in some parts of India, it was not mandated by Hindu religion as falsely implied in your textbooks.
@rashid
sati? Is this 1850?
@Raj - USA:
"Lala Gee. You do not care fore these Shias as they are not Sunni muslim"
All of my life, I lived where two or three Shia houses existed in my neighborhood amongst the majority of Sunnis. And we, all, always had good neighborly relations with each other, let alone any kind of hostility. The fact is, I never saw any kind of hostility between ordinary Shia and Sunni families living in the same vacinity. There is not a single part of Pakistan where Sunnis and Shias live as segregated communities in different neighborhoods. It is clear proof of harmony among the ordinary people of both communities. Of course, there would be some exceptions, as in any other part of the world, where some level of bigotry exists, but even that is not to the level that one commits suicide in order to blow dozens of innocents. However, every Pakistani, except some pseudo-liberals whose lavish life styles and residences in the most opulent parts of the city are greatly beyond their known sources of income, knows who is behind these terrorist outfits working in Baluchistan and other parts of Pakistan. I am sure the day will come when the real masterminds behind these heinous crimes against humanity would be exposed, as is in case of LTTE and 'Mukti Bahini', and those individuals and nations would be held responsible and punished by the international community for their crimes.
@Lala Gee: And if you would have taken care of likes of Afzal Guru in your midst, Quetta would not have been facing what its facing today
@Lala Gee: Time lalaGee you looked at the state of affairs in quetta where about 80 Hazaras have died and not a word of condemnation from the Sunni Jammat and you. How pathetic!
@Rashid: "I respect Hoodbhoy. But unfortunately he is the person who seems to spend more time on media activities than education which is what he supposed to do."
HE was let go by LUMS and does not have a job in the education sector at this time.
@Lala Gee: Afzal guru got a trial wherein 3 of his codefendants were acquitted. The missing Baloch simply end up as body bags.
You quote 1984 and 2002 but see, to forget what's happening in Pakistan in Karachi, Queta and FATA in 2013" stuck in a time warp are you?
@Lala Gee:
Yes, dude, we are evil. So what?
If you count the number of Terror attacks and the casualty rate and factor in the difference is the size of the population of India and Pakistan, you will find out Pakistan is much more violent, intolerant and chaotic than India. ZERO Terror attacks in India in 2013, while Pakistan already has had many.
I don't mind being evil in some foreign minds, as long as I get what I want. You consider us evil, you breed real evil to combat us(Terrorists), they(being real evil), turn on you.
If you ask me, go ahead and trumpet your propaganda to the rest of Pakistan, so that intolerance rises, hate towards India increases, more Islamic militants are formed, more incidents like yesterday where 64 Shias were killed and hundreds injured will happen more and more.
We hate you too, but we will not cut of the nose to spite the face. You are doing a great job of harming yourselves and we don't have to lift a finger.
Job well done, you have contributed to the radicalisation of Pakistan a tiny bit more today. :)
Curfew in the integral part of India.Definitely and no-doubt India is occupied on Kashmir by force on gunpoint not by the wills of the Kashmiri people and India is trying its best and utmost but haplessly unsuccessfully to stop the freedom movements in Kashmir by using any methods even barbaric,brutal and cruel by the barbarians,brutal,cruel and wild beasts Indian army's troops......
Dear ET where is my post?
@Lala Gee:
No matter how much froth that might come out of your mouth, the fact will remain India will not leave Kashmir and Pakistan will suffer due to its obsession with Kashmir.
You see most of Pakistan's problems are related to India holding Kashmir, be it Terror, spending money on weapons, non-existence of real Democracy with civilian supremacy, sectarian outfits having a field day, Pakistan's isolation in the world.
Why should we let go of the golden goose, which gives us free electricity, access to Hindu shrines and a holiday destination from the brutal heat of India?
It would be foolish for us to do what you want us to do and we are not fools, not even close. Even the whole world believes our version of events, more than yours! Ha!
@ B @ Lala Gee
This guy Lala Gee is ET's Rip van Winkle. He has become something of a specialist in cutting and pasting anything that is critical of Hindus that he gets to read in the Indian press which, he forgets, exercises maximum freedom of expression unlike Pakistani papers that exercise restraint, or tend to use cliches, when they report anything criticial of Pakistan which is one big mess of real estate (the word "country" or "nation" does not befit Pakistan). He not only hides in a hole but dozes off into a deep slumber and then wakes to pontificate others. He and his ilk are destroying Pakistan with their toxic and venon-spewing anti-Hindu fixation. If Lala Gee stepped out of Pakistan, he might see it as a strange, evil planet inhabited by people like him.
Dear Pakis laeve khasmir n save BALOCHTISTAN.
It is this idiocy of striking and agitating on trivia that the Kashmiris persist in that has kept them poor. If they feel that they aggrieved in India then all they have to do is go and live in Pakistan. They have forced Hindus of Jammu to go away by visiting murder and intimidation on them. Kashmiri Muslims have to learn to live peacefully in India going about their business.
@Lala Gee: ET headlines today: 64 killed, over 180 injured in blast on Kirani Road in Quetta LINK: http://tribune.com.pk/story/508261/blast-on-kirani-road-in-quetta/
Lala Gee. You do not care fore these Shias as they are not Sunni muslim terrorists like Afzal Guru in India. You are not seen the news of Shia killings today in Pakistan.
How many equivalents of Gujrat killings in the form of Shia massacres have taken place in Pakistan in the year 2013 alone? How many such massacres of Shias took place in the last 5 years in Pakistan?
Because they are Shias who are killed in Pakistan you do not care. Sick mentality and perversion to the extreme.
@Raj - USA
I respect Hoodbhoy. But unfortunately he is the person who seems to spend more time on media activities than education which is what he supposed to do. Never told anybody how many Ph.ds he has produced over these years.
never read that "Hindus burn the wife after her husband dies but Muslims don’t" in my textbooks when I was in class five. But anyway sati was practiced in India there is no doubt.
I am a sunni and for me shias are as muslims as sunnis. but problem is a person whos name is Raj and he is sitting in USA (probably) cannot understand this the debate will go on and on and on.
Ok Lala, we killed Afzal in cold blood. India is not secular. India is not a democracy. Now go sleep.
@Raj - USA:
"Parvez Hoodbhoy says:"
As if you, and your compatriots here, accept what Arundhati Roy says.
@B:
"Which hole were you hiding when Afzal Guru’s case was being heard? Looks like stupidity cleanses slowly to you."
The level of your ignorance so pathetic that you even don't know this very simple thing that Indian courts do not allow a Pakistani, or any other national for that matter, to be a party in a criminal case that does not directly involve that person. This was the Indian court's legal responsibility to provide him the appropriate legal counsel if the accused does not have one. How could you blame me, or any other foreigner's, for not providing him a good lawyer?
@Lala Gee: Which hole were you hiding when Afzal Guru's case was being heard? Looks like stupidity cleanses slowly to you. Copy and paste I your forte.
@abhi:
"He himself confessed on TV that he was part of the whole plan. He is responsible for death of so many people in the attack, why spare him?"
The fact is his and the other accused Shaukat's so called confessions were thrown out by the Indian Supreme Court due to several inconsistencies and loopholes as these were made under police coercion. Moreover, as Arundhati Roy in her article puts it, "at the most crucial stage of a criminal case, when evidence is presented, when witnesses are cross-examined, when the foundations of the argument are laid, Afzal Guru, locked in a high security solitary cell, had no lawyer. The court-appointed junior lawyer did not visit his client even once in jail, he did not summon any witnesses in Afzal’s defence and did not cross examine the prosecution witnesses. The judge expressed his inability to do anything about the situation".
Further, in a letter sent by 200 prominent Indian scholars to the President of India, point out "As in life, Afzal Guru was denied his legal rights in his death. Sir, every convict whose mercy petition has been rejected by the President, is entitled yet to a last resort. The convict has the constitutional right to file a judicial review or a delay petition, in the High Court and the Supreme Court, to seek commutation of the death sentence.".
"In fact, Afzal Guru was cynically, callously and calculatedly denied access to judicial remedy that was due to him. His family was not informed, not only because our state has become unrecognizably cruel—which it has, but also because it did not want Afzal Guru to exercise his legal rights and possibly avert the execution."
They further say, "It is also a fact that the much-hyped investigation of the Parliament attack case and its prosecution resulted in two full acquittals and conviction of another for concealing knowledge of the crime. It was almost as if there was a need to at least ensure one death sentence so that the faith of the public / society in the efficacy of the prosecution and the judiciary and the Legislature which represented the ‘State” would not be shaken. Surely this was not a case where even the government of the day was convinced of the guilt of Afzal; but treated it like a case that was far too important for all accused to be acquitted. We must remind you sir that the Supreme Court threw out the confessions of both Afzal and Shaukat which obviously indicated that the investigation had been far from fair."
@Lala Gee: You forgot to mention one thing.
In yesterday's opinion titled "Shahbag Square — why we Pakistanis don’t know and don’t care" Parvez Hoodbhoy says: The class-five Social Studies text (English), taught to 12-year olds: "Hindus burn the wife after her husband dies but Muslims don’t"
The reality is that Sunnis in Pakistan homes teach their children: "Shias mourn the death of their beloved during Muharram, We don't"
It is OK with your line of thinking as Shias are not considered muslims in Pakistan. Constitution or courts will not protect them. There are so many in Pakistan who have your line of thinking. They can see and feel everything that happen across the border but cannot see (or see but celebrate) what is happening to their Shias in Pakistan. They call them "brother" but with a hidden dagger or bomb.
Yet you talk of 1984 Sikh riots, Babri Masjid, Modi, hanging of a terrorist in India, etc.
@lala gee most of your comments are mostly hate filled trolling against india and particularly hindu people.i would advice you to go to a good doc. so that you can get a good life.
Btw no sane person would quote conspiracy master like arundhat and zaid hamid :p.
@Lala Gee
All those who are jumping now saying that Afzal didn't get a good lawyer, why none of them cared to provide a good lawyer or fight the case on his behalf? Now after all appeals are exhausted and his conviction was upheld at all levels there is not point of questioning it now. He himself confessed on TV that he was part of the whole plan. He is responsible for death of so many people in the attack, why spare him?
@Lala Gee: And in Pakistan nobody can even dare to write these about balochistan in pakistan, at least people have freedom of expression in India. Not like Pakistan or their best friend China.SHHH............. Keep quite, People(journalist ) can and are getting killed every day by guess whome? ISI.
ha ha ha ....Dont be hippocrate....
A few days back, in response to an Indian troll's claim "went through fair trial and is punished by the legal system of a country which is not known for ugly shenanigans”, I wrote a comprehensive comment exposing the partiality of the Indian justice system using online references from 'Human Rights Watch' reports and the Tehelka's investigative report "Legal Subversion". And another commentator replied with something of the effect "You simply impressed me with your argument, but let me assure you, that these trolls wouldn't accept even a universal truth if it goes against their 'Hindutva' ideology". Again these trolls are spreading all sorts of lies and facts twisting on these pages. To expose their lies, deception, and facts twisting, I am posting these credible links. Please read to know the reality as described by the Indians themselves.
1- The editorial of 'The Hindu' - "Vengeance isn’t justice" 2- The editorial of the 'Deccan Herald' - "Political execution" 3- "A perfect day for democracy" by Arundhati Roy published in 'The Hindu' 4- A Letter 'We Believe That You Made A Grave Error In Rejecting The Mercy Petition' written to the President of India by 200 prominent Indian scholars, academics, lawyers, and writers.
On Monday everything will be normal. Lift the curfew on Saturday, strike on Saturday and Sunday, and back to business and college on Monday.
@Israr-Sadozai what slap? read again we LIFTED the curfew not like some who bomb places of force occupation (remember mashky?)
Strike and shut-downs in Kashmir at the diarrheal frequency are like Kashmir Days in Pakistan - a nice day off to enjoy oneself. I wish I could say they are inconsequential but it is those very foolish people who observe them that regress in every way. It is no skin off of any one else's nose. There are enough forces to prevent a fraternal bloodbath when people catch this fever. So enjoy!
Indian OCCUPIED Kashmir
A slap on the face of all Indian trolls