M A I N   N E W S

Geelani under house arrest

Srinagar, October 22
In a pre-dawn swoop on separatists, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front Chairman Mohammad Yaseen Malik and J and K Democratic Freedom Party chief Shabir Ahmad Shah were taken into preventive custody along with 12 others while Chairman of the breakaway Hurriyat Conference Syed Ali Shah Geelani was placed under house arrest this morning.

A joint contingent of the police and paramilitary forces laid a cordon around the Hyderpora House of Geelani around 6 a.m. and informed him that he has been placed under house arrest, official sources said.

A JKLF spokesman said their leaders were taken into custody from its Anantnag district, where a handicapped person was allegedly killed while in custody yesterday.

The police, assisted by paramilitary forces, raided the JKLF headquarters and took into custody its Chairman Mohammad Yaseen Malik, vice-chairman Javid Ahmad Mir, senior Hurriyat leader Sheikh Abdul Rashid, Mohammad Sidiq Shah and Ghulam Rasool Hazari, he said.

Tension gripped Bijbehara, 45 km from here in Anantnag district, yesterday as people took to the streets to protest the alleged custodial killing.

They refused to perform the last rites of the deceased, Mohammad Khatan, till the separatist leaders reached there in connection with the tenth death anniversary of 45 persons who had died on this day in 1993 during a protest demonstration against the Hazratbal shrine siege.

The JKLF spokesman said their leaders were about to leave for Tral in Pulwama district in connection with the ongoing signature campaign of the party when they were taken into custody.

The police action sparked a protest demonstration in the area as angry supporters of the JKLF came out on the main road at Badshah Chowk in the heart of the city and indulged in stone-pelting on the cops and burned tyres which led to closure of all shops and business establishments in the locality and its adjoining areas.

The police lobbed teargas shells and used batons to chase away the protestors.

Senior separatist leader Shabir Ahmad Shah was arrested along with eight of his party workers at Sangam, 42 km from here in Anantnag district, while he was on way to Bijbehara to join the mourners there, the sources said.

Shah, his deputy Moulana Abdullah Tari and other senior party functionaries, had reached Sangam early today on their way to Bijbehara where Shah, on his return from Jammu yesterday, had assured the protesters that he would be joining them today. — PTI