M A I N   N E W S

Bhat, Shabir under ‘house arrest’
APHC leaders refuse police offer

Srinagar, September 6
Barely hours before leaving for New Delhi to hold the second round of talks with the Kashmir Committee, Hurriyat Chairman Abdul Gani Bhat, his senior amalgam colleague Moulvi Abbas Ansari and Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) chief Shabir Ahmad Shah were put under the house arrest today.

However, Director-General of Police A.K. Suri denied that any separatist leader was put under house arrest. He said there is no such law under which anyone could be put under house arrest.

Witnesses said a large posse of policemen were seen outside their houses.

“A large number of police and security forces have sealed my house and I am not being allowed to move out,” Professor Bhat said.

“I was told that I am under house arrest by the police officials who are not allowing anybody to leave or enter the house,” he said.

Mr Ansari said he was told by police that he had been put under house arrest and could not leave the premises.

Later, leaders of the All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) turned down the offer from the police to take them to the airport for their onward journey to Delhi where the amalgam leaders are scheduled to meet the Kashmir Committee.

Hurriyat Conference Chairman Abdul Gani Bhat, who was put under house arrest this morning, confirmed that he was “still under arrest”.

He said he was told by the police that he and three other members of the amalgam, who were scheduled to leave for Delhi by air this afternoon, would be taken to the airport in police vehicles.

“I turned down their offer,” he said, adding “In case the cordon around my house is lifted by tomorrow, we — myself, Mirwaiz Moulvi Omar Farooq, Javid Ahamd Mir and Sheikh Ali — will meet to decide our future strategy.”

“The next date for going to Delhi will be decided by all of us,” he said.

New Delhi: The Kashmir Committee led by Mr Ram Jethmalani today flayed the Farooq Abdullah government in J and K for putting Hurriyat leaders under arrest and termed it as a “deliberate attempt to scuttle the peace process initiated to resolve the Kashmir imbroglio.”

Committee convener Ashok Bhan said the move to detain Hurriyat leaders showed the “true face” of the Abdullah regime which was never interested in restoration of peace.

He said the state government had made up its mind to scuttle any process that was aimed at finding an amicable solution to the Kashmir problem. UNI, PTI