Most of the separatist leaders confined to homes
SRINAGAR: Police Friday foiled Lal Chowk march of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) and detained front chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik along with several top functionaries.
JKLF had called for the march to protest against recent Shopian killings.
Malik and his party activists were detained by police near Food Street after he led hundreds of people in a march towards Lal Chowk.
The other detained JKLF activists include Muhammad Yousf Naqash, Shabir Ahmed Dar, Muhammad Yasin Bhat, Ahsan Untoo, Syed Nisar, Prof Abdul Rashid Bhat, Gayus-u-Din, Shabir Ahmed Makaya and Noor Muhammad Kalwal.
Police used batons to chase away other protesters, leading to violent clashes, but no one was reported injured. Police used tear smoke shells to disperse the youth who resorted to heavy stone pelting.
JKLF meanwhile has strongly condemned the police action on peaceful protesters. A JKLF spokesman said the group had planned to organize a peaceful sit-in at Lal Chowk to seek world attention towards the unresolved Kashmir issue and the “grave human rights violations” being perpetrated on the people of the state. “The Shopian killings are a glaring example of how innocents are being killed by Indian state with impunity,” he said.
Soon after the detention of Malik and his associates, violent clashes broke out in JKLF bastion, Maisuma. Youth resorted to heavy stone pelting and attacked police and CRPF men deployed in the locality. Police fired tear smoke shells to disperse the youth. The clashes continued for hours.
Meanwhile, most of the other separatist leaders, including Syed Ali Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, were placed under house arrest.
Sources said that heavy contingents of police arrived at the residences of the separatist leaders Thursday evening and asked them not to leave their homes.
We were having apprehensions of breach of peace and that is why the separatists were confined to their homes, a senior police officer said in Srinagar. He added that their house arrest will continue till Sunday. It will continue till Sunday in view of the strike call, the officer said.
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