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| Pellets, tear gas, stones enter 'battle of ideas' after Masarat's arrest; Geelani, others put under house arrest | | 25 cops, 15 civilians injured in Kashmir clashes | | Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Apr 17: With the pressure of public outrage over last Wednesday's pro-Pakistan show in Srinagar mounting on BJP from several quarters and the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh asking J&K Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed to take "strictest possible action" against the separatist hardliners, Police on Friday arrested Muslim League leader Masarat Alam Bhat from his Zaindar Mohalla residence near office of Srinagar Deputy Commissioner and detained him in Joint Interrogation Centre of Budgam at Humhama Police Post, outside Srinagar Airport.
Masarat and a number of his supporters have been booked under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act in an FIR at Police Station Budgam for what the Police calls an anti-national demonstration.
According to highly placed government sources, Rajnath Singh's telephonic conversation with the Chief Minister, followed by a written communication from his Ministry, seeking "appropriate legal action" against the separatists involved in shouting pro-Pakistan slogans and waving Pakistani flags all through the road outside J&K Police headquarters at Hyderpora, led to instructions to Police to detain Masarat. He was whisked away to Police Station Shaheed Gunj and thereafter shifted to JIC at Humhama. Sources said he would be produced before a magistrate on Saturday and Police would seek his custodial interrogation.
Meanwhile, fearing trouble due to the hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani's call of a mass march to Tral to participate in the remembrance ceremony of a militant and another militant's brother in an alleged fake encounter, authorities also kept Geelani and some other separatist leaders under house arrest at their respective residences. Reports said that raids were carried out on houses of over a dozen separatist activists and 15 of them were lifted and detained at different places. However, head of the socalled moderate faction of Hurriyat Conference Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was permitted to participate in the weekly Friday congregational prayers at Jamia Masjid in downtown Srinagar.
With the youngsters at several places in Srinagar engaging police and CRPF in ding dong street clashes in downtown, besides in Tral which was virtually put under curfew, Mirwaiz led a procession of his followers from Jamia Masjid after the prayers. Eyewitnesses said that many of the participants shouted hardcore pro-Pakistan slogans and carried black and green flags. They clashed with Police at Nowhatta Chowk and the exchange of stones and teargas cannisters continued for about an hour.
Speaking to media, Mirwaiz sought to make it clear that the demonstration at Jamia Masjid was in solidarity with the two people's families killed in Tral and it was not connected to Masarat Alam.
Sources said 40 people, including 25 policemen, sustained injuries in today's clashes. An official handout however claimed that only 24 men, including 21 policemen and 3 civilians, sustained "minor injuries" in these clashes.
It was for the first time after the summer agitation of 2010, and significantly for the first time during the PDP-BJP rule in Jammu and Kashmir that such type of clashes occurred between the separatist demonstrators and Police.
Meanwhile, Geelani has called for a Kashmir Bandh on Saturday in protest of the Government action of Masarat's detention, house arrest of separatist leaders and preventing people from joining the condolence meeting in Tral. |
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