Separatist leaders have called for a complete shutdown in the Kashmir Valley on Wednesday to protest the killing of Rising Kashmir editor Shujaat Bukhari and civilian deaths across Kashmir since Eid. Bukhari and two of his personal security officers were killed by three bike-borne men as he left his office in Srinagar’s Press Enclave on June 14.
The Joint Resistance Leadership, a union of separatist groups, said in a statement that civilian killings in the Valley had increased since Eid as three young boys were gunned down by Indian security forces while “a fourth was struggling for life” at the Sher-I-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, the Greater Kashmir reported on Tuesday.
The Joint Resistance Leadership also demanded an “international investigation” into the murder of Bukhari.
Cordon and search operations have returned “with a vengeance to villages as people are being severely beaten and harassed and used as human shields”, the statement added. The central government on June 17 ended a unilateral Ramzan ceasefire and announced the resumption of security operations.
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