Kashmir shut down for Indian vice president visit

Posted 06 22 2009 5:47PM

SRINAGAR (AFP) – A strike to protest against a visit by the Indian vice president to the disputed region of Kashmir on Saturday shut down shops, offices and schools.

Vice President Hamid Ansari was set to arrive in the summer capital Srinagar later in the day to attend a university event in the city.

Security was tight after the death of a vegetable seller overnight in a grenade explosion in Srinagar.

A suspected militant was also killed and two of his associates were wounded on Thursday when a bomb they were making went off in Srinagar close to the university campus.

Police and paramilitary forces patrolled the deserted streets of Srinagar and sealed off neighbourhoods to prevent rallies against India's rule of the Muslim-majority region.

Ansari's visit comes as protests have been raging across the Kashmir valley since the bodies of two women who had been raped were found three weeks ago.

Families of the two victims have blamed security forces for the crime.