SRINAGAR, 20 November 2021, (TON): Thousands of Kashmiris defied the biting winter cold to attend the funerals Friday of two men killed during a security operation, heralding a widespread shutdown in the Indian-occupied territory.

The pair, who police said had died in crossfire on Monday in a gunfight with suspected separatists had been hurriedly interred by authorities in a remote graveyard.

The deaths sparked anger in the region with their families insisting they had no links to the fighters, accusing security forces of murdering them in cold blood and demanding their bodies be returned for a proper Islamic burial.

Officials ordered a probe into the killings of Mohammad Altaf Bhat and Mudasir Ahmed Gul before exhuming their remains and handing them over to relatives amid wails and emotional post-midnight scenes in Srinagar.

An media reporter on the scene said “thousands of people turned out for their pre-dawn reburials, with some angry mourners shouting we want freedom and others reciting Quranic verses.”

Bhat's niece Saima Bhat posted on Twitter "your death has shattered us completely."

She added “she did not know if we'll be able to cope up from this tragedy.”

Family members told media that officers had instructed them to bury the men at night and not to allow crowds to assemble.