Several police officials said the posters were pasted at night when security deployment was low.In Karan Nagar market in Srinagars Civil Lines area, the words LW were emblazoned on two shops followed by an insignia of the Hizbul Mujahideen.Police deciphered LW to mean last warning as the two shops had defied the militants, officials said.In another instance, a poster in English from the Musa Baba group was pasted on the wall of a shop at Srinagars Bemina Bazar asking shopkeepers to sell essential commodities till 8.30 am.Normal life remains hit with a communications clampdown, markets and other business establishments closed, and public transport largely off the roads.The incidents of terrorists sealing shops and posters, both handwritten and typed, being pasted in markets, mosques and other areas with do and dont diktats from different terror groups, have become a regular feature in Kashmir Valley, they said. We have held talks with senior police officials privately but no solution to our problems is forthcoming,” said a shopkeeper who did not want to be identified. And it is not just about a far-flung village or one terror group, officials said..In Ganderbal in central Kashmir and in Srinagars downtown Fathekadal area, posters came up on behalf of the terror outfit Al Badar asking them to socially boycott the families of the policemen.

There have also been instances of armed militants walking into shops to warn owners to keep shutters down and barging into Jammu and Kashmir Bank branches in south Kashmir to ask employees to stay away from work, they said.Its a common refrain in the Valley, which has been under virtual lockdown since August 5, when the Centre announced the revocation of Jammu and Kashmirs special status and the bifurcation of the state into the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.Two shops in Modrigam village in south Kashmirs Kulgam district were recently sealed by adhesive tapes with a seal of the banned China Fluorocarbon O ring for sale terror outfit Hizbul Mujahideen, sending shock waves in the area.Officials admitted that such posters were dictating the defiance against the administration. Many people were taking them seriously and preferring to remain indoors, they said.Srinagar: Armed militants are trying to spread fear among residents and defy the administration by forcibly shutting shops, sometimes by walking into the premises and intimidating owners, through threats made in posters that appear on walls overnight or by sealing shutters with tape, officials here say.Jammu and Kashmir Police has officially kept mum with no one willing to come on record, but officials said on condition of anonymity that the situation could be slipping out of their hands.”We want to open markets but who will guarantee our security when we return home.”We do not understand why police is ineffective and not acting against those creating mischief,” said another shopkeeper.