By IANS,
Srinagar : Thousands of people Monday attended the funeral of a Kashmiri student, found dead under mysterious circumstances in Hyderabad, even as shops and other businesses were shut in most parts of the valley in response to a shutdown call by separatists.
The body of Mudasir Ahmad Malla of Parigam village, 22 km from here, in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district, was brought here from Hyderabad where he was found dead Sunday.
Malla, a Ph.D scholar in the English and Foreign Languages University at Hyderabad, was found hanging in his room Sunday.
Before burial at his ancestral graveyard with over 10,000 people in attendance, Malla’s body was taken for autopsy to the Pulwama hospital after which it was handed over to the family for the last rites.
The united separatist forum, Muttahida Majlis-e-Mushawarat (MMM) had called for a valley-wide protest shutdown Monday alleging that the Kashmiri student had been murdered. Hyderabad police sources said preliminary investigations indicated the student had committed suicide.
An FIR has been lodged by Hyderabad police in the incident and investigations are on to ascertain the exact details of the incident.
Markets, public transport and other businesses remained closed in Srinagar and other towns of the Valley Monday although government offices, banks and post offices functioned normally.
Private transport also plied on the roads in Srinagar and some other towns.
Barring some incidents of stone pelting by groups of youth in Srinagar, the overall law and order situation remained peaceful during the day.
Heavy deployments of police and Central Reserve Police Force had been made by the authorities in Srinagar and other towns, but no restrictions were imposed on pedestrian or vehicular movement anywhere.