Stone-pelting in Srinagar after Malik’s sentencing
10 held for anti-national slogans; Shutdown by traders continues
The Jammu and Kashmir police overnight arrested ten youth from Srinagar’s Maisuma neighbourhood for raising ‘anti-national’ slogans and hurling stones on security personnel outside the home of separatist leader Muhammad Yasin Malik on Wednesday.
The police said that the accused were arrested in raids on private houses in the area following a case was registered at the police station concerned.
The police in a statement here said that while the main accused too has been arrested, the instigators will also be booked under Public Safety Act (PSA), the tough law under which a person can be detained for a period of three months to two years without seeking a formal trial.
Apparently, to deter others from indulging in such activities, the police said that they will be lodged in jails outside J&K. The police, at the same time, requested the youth “not to indulge in such activities which may destroy their career and disrupt families.”
A crowd, mainly comprising youths, had on Wednesday assembled outside the residence of Malik at Maisuma to shout proazadi slogans and to praise him for his “valour”. When a strong contingent of J&K police and the CRPF moved in the congested locality, irate youth hurled rocks at them, prompting the police to fire a few teargas canisters to quell the mob.
Though the situation was brought under control immediately, tensions persisted. The authorities deployed J&K police and Central Armed Police Forces reinforcements at Maisuma and other sensitive parts of Srinagar on Wednesday evening itself to prevent a law-and-order situation from arising.
On the second consecutive day on Thursday larger parts of Srinagar witnessed a spontaneous shut down by traders. However, the public and private transport plied as usual in and outside the Kashmiri capital.
Malik, 56, who heads the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front which was in March 2019 banned by the Union Home Ministry for a period of five years after declaring it an “unlawful association”, having potential “to disrupt the unity and integrity of the country”, was on Wednesday awarded two life sentences and three and five punishments of five and ten years of rigorous imprisonments, respectively by a special National Investigation Agency court in New Delhi. The sentences are to run concurrently while a monetary penalty of over Rs one million was also levied on him.
While Malik can appeal in the high court, the JKLF has said that it is holding consultation with experts over the possibility of challenging the verdict in the International Court of Justice.