Curfew in Kashmir after separatist hanged

Indian security forces have imposed a curfew in parts of India-administered Kashmir following the execution of a separatist.

Police cordoned off the centre of the main city Srinagar on Saturday, asking people in the rural areas to stay indoors from daybreak as it emerged that Mohammed Afzal Guru, a member of a group fighting Indian rule in the divided region, was to be hanged.

Mohammed Afzal Guru was hanged in a jail near New Delhi on Saturday over his role in a deadly attack on parliament in the Indian capital in 2001, an episode that brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war.

He was executed after President Pranab Mukherjee turned down his mercy petition a few days ago.

Guru was charged with arming a military group to carry out the attack.

On December 13, 2001, five gunmen stormed the parliament complex in New Delhi, but all were shot dead before entering the legislative chamber. Ten other people, mostly security guards, were also killed.

Guru’s hanging follows the execution of the lone surviving gunman from the 2008 Mumbai attacks, Pakistani-born Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, who was executed on November 21 last year.

On November 26, 2008, 10 gunmen attacked multiple locations in India’s financial capital, killing more than 170 people, including 22 foreigners, and injuring hundreds in the worst terror attack in the country in over a decade.