STATE TIMES NEWS
Srinagar: Even as restrictions continued in Srinagar on the second day, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik was arrested on Friday while Huriyat Conference Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was placed under house arrest, police said.
Malik was arrested when he and his supporters tried to lead a march from Sarai Bala area to Lal Chowk in the heart of Srinagar, the summer capital of the state.
Earlier, Mirwaiz, who was also to lead a march towards the UN military observers group headquarters, was placed under house arrest.
Authorities imposed restrictions in parts of Srinagar to prevent the Friday protests called by separatist groups.
Meanwhile, restrictions in parts of Srinagar continued for the second day on Friday to maintain law and order in the city in wake of proposed march of the separatists to Lal Chowk city centre and to the local office of the United Nations here. While restrictions continued in downtown (interior areas of the city), the curbs have also been imposed in the police station areas of Maisuma, Ram Munshi Bagh and Kothi Bagh in the city, a police official said. He said the restrictions were imposed to maintain law and order in view of the call for a march to Lal Chowk and to the office of United Nations Military Observers Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) at Sonwar here. The official said security forces have sealed all entry points leading to Lal Chowk by putting up barricades at various places.
The security forces have also been deployed in strength in sensitive areas of the city and elsewhere in the Valley to thwart any protests.
A joint statement yesterday said that separatists including chairmen of both factions of Hurriyat Conference, Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, and JKLF chief Yasin Malik would lead marches from different places after Friday prayers towards Lal Chowk.
From Lal Chowk, they will go to the UNMOGIP office where a memorandum would be presented to the UN office wherein the world body would be urged to pressurise the Centre into returning the mortal remains of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru and JKLF founder Maqbool Bhat, which are lying at Delhi’s Tihar Jail, back to Kashmir, the statement said.
While Guru was hanged and buried in the Tihar on 9th February 2013, Bhat was hanged on February 11, 1984.
Meanwhile, the separatist Geelani continues to remain under house arrest, and Mirwaiz was barred from leaving his Nigeen residence this morning, the police official said.
