Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq placed under house arrest

Mangalore Today News Network

Srinagar, April 18, 2015: Several separatists, including moderate Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, were placed under house arrest by authorities in Jammu and Kashmir even as a strike called by hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani over killing of two young men in an army operation earlier this week evoked a partial response in some parts of Kashmir.

With fresh protests going on over the killings in Tral area of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district, Mirwaiz was placed under house arrest on Saturday morning, police said.

The police officials said the house arrest of the separatist leaders was a preventive measure for maintaining law and order, reported PTI. Geelani and several other second rung separatist leaders continue to be under house arrest for the second consecutive day on Saturday, the officials added.

These leaders were placed under house arrest on Friday to scuttle Geelani’s proposed march to Tral town for registering protest against the killing of the two youths, claimed to be innocent civilians by local residents.


However, the Army has maintained that they were militants.

In view of the strike call, shops, business establishments, educational institutes and petrol pumps were shut in and around Lal Chowk city centre but most of them were open in the civil lines areas of the city as well as in other major towns of the Valley, the officials said.

They said while public transport was sparse, private vehicles, cabs and auto-rickshaws plied normally.

Geelani had called for a strike against the killing of the two youths. He had also asked the people to protest against "unjustified and inhuman" arrests of Hurriyat Leaders including Masarat Alam.

 

IANS