A hardline separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference shut down call on Saturday crippled normal life in Kashmir valley.

Schools, colleges, banks, shops and other business establishments remained closed in summer capital Srinagar even though skeletal private transport plied on city roads.

Hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who is the chairman of his own breakaway APHC, had called for Saturday's shut down to protest the arrest and subsequent booking under Public Safety Act of six of his close associates in Srinagar last week.

Reports from other major and small valley towns also indicated a near total response to Geelani's call.

It must be mentioned that six of Geelani's aides were arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir police last week and subsequently booked under the PSA, for holding a rally in Eidgah, in the heart of capital city Srinagar on April 22.

A case had been registered against Geelani and his associates in a local police station for holding the gathering and shouting of anti-national slogans.