Kashmir partly shut over assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah

By Nusrat Sidiq

SRINAGAR, Jammu and Kashmir (AA) - A shutdown was observed in several parts of Indian-administered Kashmir on Monday in protest against the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Shops and business establishments remained closed in central Kashmir’s Budgam district, and in certain parts in capital Srinagar as a mark of protest against the killing of Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike on Friday.

Over the weekend, protests were held in the region, particularly in Shia-dominated areas where hundreds of men and women took to the streets holding portraits of Nasrallah as they chanted slogans against Israel and the US.

Many religious and political leaders in the region expressed grief over the killing and some had canceled their election campaigns as a "mark of protest” on Sunday.

India is holding elections in the region for the local legislative assembly for the first time since 2014.

Religious leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq expressed grief over the killing of Hezbollah leader, saying “Kashmir stands in solidarity” with the oppressed people of Gaza and Lebanon while condemning the ongoing Israeli aggression.

“The heart wrenching suffering inflicted on the people of Gaza and now Lebanon is very painful to bear as is the inability of world to stop the blatant Israeli violence against the justice seeking people of Palestine,” he said on X.

Former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Monday called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the “biggest terrorist after Adolf Hitler,” accusing him of turning Palestine and Lebanon into “gas chambers.”

Hezbollah confirmed on Saturday that Nasrallah, one of its founders, was killed Friday in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut.