Miscreants and terrorists are indulging in fear-mongering in Kashmir to put down any resistance to the unannounced shutdown, which has now entered its fourth month, police said on Wednesday.
"There have been consistent efforts to enforce shutdown in areas where shops are open or roadside vendors are plying their trade. The anti-peace elements are trying to keep people indoors," a senior police official said.
The official said two grenade attacks in the city's busy Goni Khan market and Kaka Sarai areas were an indication that there were concerted efforts to keep the shutdown going.
One street vendor was killed while 35 others were injured in the grenade attack at Goni Khan market on Monday as the shops in the area were open beyond the 12.00 pm self-imposed deadline for closing the markets. Six security force personnel were injured in the attack at Kaka Sarai last week. Several shops, falling in the areas which have defied the shutdown, have been damaged in the mysterious fire incidents.
While police have been maintaining that these fires were caused by 'electric short circuit', some of the owners suspect foul play by the miscreants.
"We have already lost our capital...I do not want any physical harm now," the owner of a shop, which got damaged in a fire incident at Batamaloo recently, said on condition of anonymity.