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Srinagar, Sept.21 (ANI): Kashmir Valley residents were forced to stay indoors on Saturday after the Syed Ali Shah Geelani-led faction of the Hurriyat Conference imposed a shutdown in protest over the recent violence in Shopian District and repeated human rights violations in the state.

All shops, business establishments and educational institutions in the state were shut as public transport also ceased to ply.

Bashir Ahmad, a resident, said there was need to stop atrocities from being committed against people in the valley.

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader Mehbooba Mufti attempted to visit Shopian on September 11, but was stopped from entering the district, which was then under curfew.

The United Nations said in 2012 that India should scrap the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) which gives security forces, battling militancy in the troubled regions of Kashmir and the northeast, sweeping powers to search, arrest or shoot people.

Human rights groups say the AFSPA is a draconian law which the military arbitrarily uses to violate civilians’ rights.

The authorities and the army deny those charges, and say the legislation is essential to root out insurgents. Kashmir, the country’s only majority-Muslim region, has been the trigger for two out of three wars between India and its neighbour Pakistan.

Among other powers, the AFSPA allows security forces to fire upon, or use force against, an assembly of five or more people, or anyone in possession of a deadly weapon. It gives legal immunity to the officials, so they can be neither sued nor prosecuted.

Kashmir region has witnessed numerous militant attacks, insurgency, and infiltration attempts from across the border in the last two decades. (ANI)