Srinagar
A complete shutdown is being observed across Kashmir Valley on Saturday following a shutdown call by Joint Resistance Leadership against the Panchayat polls commencing from today across the Jammu and Kashmir.
All the shops and other business establishments remained closed and public transport is off the roads. The shutdown was called by the Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL), a separatist conglomerate headed by Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, and Muhammad Yasin Malik.
Reports said that heavy deployments were also seen on the roads in old city areas of the city to maintain law and order.
The leadership earlier urged people to observe shutdown against “yet another election drama” being enacted by the “oppressive regime” of New Delhi. They urged the people to reject and boycott the Panchayat polls “in the same way they rejected the Urban Local Bodies polls by staying indoors.”
The JRL also said that strike should also be observed in the poll-bound areas on November 29, 24, 27 and 29 and also on December 1,4 and 8 to a give a “clear message to the world community that people have no faith in the sham elections which are held under the presence of lakhs of additional forces.”
