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Hurriyat leaders held in Srinagar

By Shujaat Bukhari

Javed Mir, acting chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, being arrested during a demonstration in Srinagar on Saturday. — Photo: Nissar Ahmad

SRINAGAR JULY 20 . While three senior leaders of the All-Party Hurriyat Conference, including its chairman, were placed under house arrest, Javed Mir and Bilal Lone and 10 women were among dozens taken into custody when they tried to take out a march against the Qasim Nagar massacre. In Jammu, the senior Hurriyat member and JKLF chairman, Yasin Malik, was released by a POTA court but rearrested under the Public Safety Act.

The Hurriyat had plans to take out a procession in Srinagar to protest the massacre of labourers in Qasim Nagar a week ago. However, police, as alleged by the alliance, placed the Hurriyat chairman, Abdul Gani Bhat, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Moulvi Abbas Ansari under house arrest. Policemen were also deployed outside the Hurriyat headquarters at Rajbagh, an allegation denied by police. Over a hundred Hurriyat activists took out a procession but police resorted to lathicharge and prevented them from going ahead. Some activists were injured.

Later, police fired tear smoke shells to disperse the activists before taking into custody the JKLF acting chairman, Javed Mir, the Hurriyat executive member, Bilal Lone and People's League leader, Khalil Mohammad Khalil, and 10 women activists among others.

A senior police officer said that the activists had violated Section 144, which was in force in the city.

Condemning the police action, Prof. Bhat said that the Government did not allow them to use democratic means.

The Qasim Nagar massacre was an attack on humanity and "such human tragedies will continue unless the Kashmir issue is not resolved in accordance with the wishes of the people.''

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