Business establishments generally remained shut and public transport was off the road in Kashmir on Saturday in response to the shutdown call of the Hurriyat Conference against the new land laws under which people from other states can purchase land in Jammu and Kashmir.

Breaking its long silence, the Hurriyat led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq had given the shutdown call against the “anti-people” order of the centre.

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Security forces were deployed in strength to prevent any untoward incident. Vehicles were thoroughly checked by them.

The centre had earlier this month notified new land laws that lifted the land purchase restrictions on outsiders.

A joint statement issued by Hurriyat Conference leaders, Mirwaiz, Prof. Abdul Gani Bhat, Bilal Gani Lone and Masroor Abbas Ansari said; “the amalgam reiterates its principled stand of engagement and dialogue among stakeholders for resolution of the Kashmir dispute”. It accused the Centre of attempting to “undermine all attempts of pursuing a peaceful resolution”.

“A policy of permanent demographic change is aggressively being pushed to snatch our land, destroy our identity and turn us into a minority in our own land. One after the other laws are being invented and amended by New Delhi and forcibly thrust upon the people…”

The statement added the Centre first brought in the “arbitrary” domicile law that gave residency rights to non-permanent residents and then allowed them to get jobs. “ now our land laws have been “brazenly” repealed to allow anyone from across India to own land in Jammu & Kashmir,” it said.