Government offices, businesses and public transport were shut down in the Valley on Friday as a mark of protest against the publication of cartoons of Prophet Muhammad by French magazine Charlie Hebdo and several other Western publications.
The call for the shutdown was given by senior Hurriyat leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and JKLF chairman Yasin Malik.
The State administration responded to the call by beefing up security and imposing unannounced curfew at several places. The police detained Mr. Malik on Thursday night, while Mr. Geelani is under house arrest.
Senior Hurriyat leaders told The Hindu that Muslims consider any representation of Prophet Muhammad blasphemous and said freedom of expression did not give anyone the right to hurt the beliefs and sentiments of billions of people.
The shutdown was supported by young students and professionals across the Valley who too believed that the cartoons were not only an attack on their faith but also on their political identity.
“This is Western hegemony and nothing else, where only the West will choose what can be lampooned and what cannot be touched. While they can make a satire and caricaturise our Prophet, the Holocaust is considered sacred and even to touch it gets you branded anti-Semitic,” said Asif Ahmad, a student.
All you need to know about the Paris shootings:
>Recent security incidents in France
- ›Dec. 1, 2007 - Gunmen suspected of belonging to Basque separatist group ETA kill two Spanish policemen working undercover in France.
- ›Jan. 11, 2009 - Arsonists use fire bombs to attack a synagogue near Paris and a place of worship in Strasbourg.
- ›Nov. 10, 2010 - Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux announces the arrest of five French nationals suspected of conspiring to launch a terror attack in France.
- ›November 2011 - A firebomb attack guts the headquarters of Charlie Hebdo after it put an image of the Prophet Mohammad on its cover.
- ›March 2012 - Mohamed Merah, an al Qaeda-inspired gunman, kills seven people in three separate shootings in Toulouse. Victims included three soldiers of North African origin, a rabbi and his two young children.
- ›December 2014 - A man shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest) injures 13 by ramming a vehicle into a crowd in the eastern city of Dijon. Prime Minister Manuel Valls says France has "never before faced such a high threat linked to terrorism".