JK highway blocked for 6 hrs over suspicious death of trucker in Kashmir

People blocked Jammu-Srinagar National Highway on Thursday for several hours to protest against the suspicious death of a truck driver in south Kashmir, officials said.

Truck driver Partap Singh of Jhajjar Kotli area of Jammu district was found dead under suspicious circumstances in Khudwani belt of Kulgam district on Wednesday, they said.

People, including truck drivers and several relatives of the deceased, blocked the road for several hours by keeping the body in the middle of the highway and staging a sit-in protest there, they said.

Alleging that Pratap Singh was murdered in Kashmir, they demanded a high-level probe into his death by a special police team.

The protests and blockade for over six hours led to a heavy traffic jam on the highway, they said.

Authorities including police reached the spot and assured protesters of a thorough probe into the death, only after which they cleared the road to allow resumption of the traffic.