OCCUPIED SRINAGAR: Thousands of Kashmiris defied the biting winter cold to attend the funerals Friday of two men martyred during a security operation, heralding a widespread shutdown in the Illegally Indian-Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IIOJK).

The pair — who police said had martyred in “crossfire” on Monday in a gunfight with suspected separatists — had been hurriedly interred by authorities in a remote graveyard.

The deaths sparked anger in the restive region with their families insisting they had no links to the militants, accusing security forces of murdering them in “cold blood” and demanding their bodies be returned for a proper Islamic burial.