Srinagar, Oct 23 (KNS): Complete shutdown was Friday observed in Shopian and Pulwama and Kulgam districts in south Kashmir against the killing of two Hizb-ul-Mujahideen militants in an encounter with security forces in Shopian on Thursday.
Shops, educational institutes, business units remained shut, while traffic was off the roads in all the three districts.
Eyewitnesses said that clashes broke out between government forces and youth in Shopian town after Friday prayers.
Youth and police fought pitched battles in the town as the former pelted stones and the latter reacted by firing tear gas shells.
Reports said that in Tral angry youth hurled stones at an army camp in Ladiyar village ana a CRPF camp in main town to protest the killing of the two militants in Shopian. Police was called in to disperse protesters by firing tear gas canisters and lathicharhing them.
Two militants of Shopian were killed in an apple orchard by security forces on Thursday in a brief encounter.
Earlier, today in the morning thousands of people assembled in Maldeera and Baribugh villages in the district to offer funerals of the slain militants - Irshad Ahmad Sheikh of Maldeera and Adil Khanday of Barbugh Imam-sahib – and their coffins were carried in a huge procession amid pro-freedom and anti-India slogans to graveyards. (KNS)