By IANS,
Srinagar : Life in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district was badly affected Friday following a shutdown call given by senior hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani, officials said.
Shops, educational institutions, public transport, banks and other business establishments were shut as authorities made elaborate arrangements to maintain law and order in Kulgam district, about 70 km from here.
Today’s shutdown call had been given by Geelani as part of his “resistance programme to get private land and properties occupied by the army vacated in Kashmir”.
Geelani was arrested Thursday evening by the police and reports here said he had been lodged at a local police station.
Geelani, chairman of the breakaway Hurriyat group, has been emboldened by union Home Minister P. Chidambaram’s “quiet diplomacy” announcement to re-start the dialogue process with the separatist leaders here.
Geelani said last week that he would engage in the dialogue process with the central government only after “India recognised Kashmir as a disputed territory”.