SRINAGAR, 9 February 2020, TON: Shops and businesses centers remained closed while public transport remained off road in occupied Jammu & Kashmir on Sunday as Kashmiri throughout the State observed a strike to mark the execution anniversary of a Kashmiri fruit vendor, Mohammed Afzal Guru, who was convicted for an attack on the Indian parliament in Delhi. His family received a letter informing them of his imminent hanging two days after he was dead, but the letter, dated Feb 6, 2013, was mailed on Feb 8, a day before Guru's execution.

Guru was convicted in a 2001 attack on India's Parliament in which 14 people lost their lives. Top Kashmiri-Pakistani leader Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik recorded their separate messages on the occasion.

Thousands of security forces were deployed in deserted streets in Srinagar and elsewhere, where they were ordered to shoot on spot whosoever violates.

Kashmiris have also given a call for a strike on 11 February to mark the day in 1984 when Kashmiri leader Mohammed Maqbool Butt was hanged in New Delhi jail after being convicted of killing an Indian Intelligence officer.