Srinagar: Separatists in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday called for a general strike to protest PM Narendra Modi's visit to inaugurate the Chenani-Nashri tunnel, the longest in the country, on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway on April 2.

"There should be a complete shutdown on April 2 to protest the proposed visit of Modi. All rhetorics about development or construction of tunnels and roads are futile and will not succeed in luring us," chairmen of the rival factions of the Hurriyat Conference, Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, and JKLF chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik said.


Meanwhile, a top commander of Kashmir’s Hibz-ul-Mujahedin outfit was arrested by plainclothesmen from a Srinagar hospital. Amir Nabi Wagay was arrested by the officials of J&K police’s CID wing in an operation executed on the basis of “planned surveillance” on his movement.