SRINAGAR: JKLF chairman Yasin Malik was on Friday detained at Pulwama as he led his supporters to stage a protest march against Jammu and Kashmir government’s decision to issue identity certificates to West Pakistani Refugees.
Malik was detained along with several of his supporters.
They were taken into preventive custody, a police official said.
Separatists groups had called for protests against the government decision to issue identity certificates to West Pakistan Refugees living in the State since partition in 1947. The state government has decided to ssue identity cards to the refugees and had to issue clarification after protests from opposition parties and separatists against the move.
Initially, reports had said the opposition was against the government move to issue domicile certificates, but the state government said it was issuing identity certificates.
Other political organisations, including BJP and Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party, have slammed separatists for opposing the issuance of certificates to the refugees.
The refugees, settled in Jammu and Kashmir, are citizens of India and have the right to vote in parliamentary polls.
However, they are not permanent residents of the state in terms of Jammu and Kashmir Constitution. They do not enjoy voting rights to the state assembly and local bodies.
Meanwhile, normal life was affected in the Valley due to a strike called by separatists against the issuance of identity certificates to West Pakistan Refugees (WPRs).
Most of the shops, fuel stations and other business establishments in Srinagar – the summer capital of the state – were shut, while public transport was minimal, officials said.
They said there were very few street vendors visible in the city today due to the strike.
Reports of shutdown were also received from most of the other district headquarters of the Valley, the officials said.
Security forces were deployed in strength at sensitive places where barricades were also erected.
The separatists have also been calling for shutdown on Friday and Saturday every week after scaling down their agitation.
The more than five-month unrest in the Valley had left 86 people dead and thousands others, including 5,000 security personnel, injured.
Three injured as
stone-pelters clash with SFs
Srinagar: Three persons were injured on Friday in security forces’ action against a group of stone-pelting protesters in Pampore area of south Kashmir Pulwama district.
Security forces conducted search operations in Naristan and Samboora areas of the district in the morning following information about movement of suspicious persons there, a police official said.
As the security forces were withdrawing after concluding the operations, some youth started pelting stones at them, he said.
Three persons were injured as security personnel fired a few rounds to disperse the mob, the official said adding the injured have been admitted to a hospital here for treatment.