Separatist leader Muhammad Yasin Malik was detained by the police on Thursday before he could participate in the protest shutdown call in Srinagar.
Malik, the chief of Jammu-Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), was detained by the police who arrived at his residence in Maisuma. The separatist leader was scheduled to participate in the protests against the killings of senior journalist Shujaat Bukhari and civilians in Kashmir.
The shutdown called by the Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL), a grouping of separatists headed by Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Malik, affected life across the Kashmir valley on Thursday.
Bukhari was killed along with two of his security guards at Press Enclave in Srinagar on 14 June.
Shops, public transport, other businesses and educational institutions remained shut at most places while attendance in banks, post offices and government offices was thin due to non-availability of public transport. Private transport and some three wheelers, however, moved in uptown areas of Srinagar.
Reports from other cities and towns in the Valley also indicate that the shutdown derailed normal life there, too. Rail services have been suspended as a precaution.
(With inputs from agencies.)