Shops and business establishments remained closed and barring some three-wheelers and passenger vehicles on civil line routes, the roads wore a deserted look.

Attendance in government offices was also affected while all education institutions remained closed. On this day in 1990, unidentified gunmen had killed Moulvi Farooq at his Nageen residence. Meanwhile, troops have made ``satisfactory'' progress in cutting off infiltrators who sneaked into `unheld areas' in Kargil and Drass sectors of Jammu and Kashmir under heavy shelling by Pakistani troops from across the border on May 9. A Defence Ministry spokesman told UNI this afternoon that the positions held by the Pakistani infiltrators since May 9 had effectively been engaged by artillery fire, causing heavy casualties to them. However, he said, the exact number ofcasualties suffered by the infiltrators was not immediately known.

The 434-km-long Srinagar-Leh National Highway will be reopened for vehicular traffic by mid-June, according to an official spokesman. The road remains blocked for six months in winter because of heavy snowfall.

However, Lt Gen Krishan Pal recently said about 300 to 400 heavily armed and well-trained infiltrators made an unsuccessful attempt to cut off the important road link near Kargil and Drass.