Separatists in Jammu & Kashmir on Thursday called for a general strike to protest Prime Minister 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 in a joint statement here.

They said the Prime Minister was visiting the state at a time when the situation was “extremely gloomy”.

The separatist leaders, who jointly spearheaded last year’s agitation following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani, which left 85 people dead and thousands injured, said “calling or observing a shutdown does not meet the demands of the situation but there is no other option left by the authorities”.

“We do not harbour any animosity towards the Indian Prime Minister but it is frightening and painful that instead of taking notice of the genocide in the state, he is awarding and rewarding the assassins,” they said, adding that Kashmir is a political issue and not a problem related to “governance, economic packages, incentives or law-and-order”.

Meanwhile, the hardline Hurriyat faction headed by Geelani defended stonepelting by protesters saying “stonepelting is a tool in the hands of the deprived people” and not sponsored by Pakistan.

“Stonepelting in Jammu and Kashmir has since long been used as a tool of resistance. It is ridiculous to blame Pakistan for instigating stonepelting,” the Hurriyat said in a separate statement.

“Ours is an indigenous movement. People will pursue the struggle till their aspirations regarding the political destiny of the state are accorded due honour and ascertained through the right to self-determination,” it added.