DEFYING HOUSE ARREST: GEELANI, MIRWAIZ HELD,
SHOPIAN KILLINGS Mobile internet snapped, train services hit due to security reasons
Srinagar: restrictions have been imposed in parts of Srinagar and Kashmir’s Shopian district to thwart a march called by separatists to protest the killings of civilians in Shopian by forces.
Police said free movement of people and vehicles have been restricted in northern parts of Srinagar (Old City), Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman Yasin Malik’s bastion Maisuma and Shopian district.
Mobile internet services have also been suspended in parts of south Kashmir while train services have been stopped due to security reasons, they said. The internet speed in Srinagar was very slow.
GEELANI, MIRWAIZ HELD FOR DEFYING HOUSE ARREST
Senior separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani and moderate leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq have also been placed under house arrest for the past one week.
A joint statement by the separatists said that Geelani and Mirwaiz tried to ‘defy their house detention’ but were detained by police outside their respective residences in Hyderpora and Nigeen. “Spree of arrests, nocturnal and day time raids, imposition of curfew and restrictions and other oppressive tactics are a glaring example of the farce Indian democracy practiced in Jammu and Kashmir. Gruesome killings at Shopian and a complete ban on mourning are not only inhuman but an act of state sponsored terrorism,” they said in the statement.
JKLF’S Yasin Malik, who was in hiding to evade arrest, managed to reach Shopian Jamia Masjid and tried to lead a protest rally. “Yasin Malik addressed people at Jamia Masjid and after Friday prayers, led peaceful protesters out of the Masjid and marched towards main Chowk Shopian. Indian occupational forces that had almost sealed the whole area and had clamped curfew, soon came into action and arrested JKLF chairman along another JKLF leader. Both the arrested have been immediately shifted to some unknown police station,” the statement by separatists said.
There were clashes between stone-throwing youth and security forces after the detentions.
Shopian has been restive since the January 24 encounter between militants and security forces in Chaigund village in which two militants were killed. Five civilians were killed since the incident including one near encounter site on the same day. Three days after the encounter, two more civilians – Javaid Bhat and Shail Lone– both in their 20s, were killed after army opened fire on protesters in Ganowpora village on January 27 while a third youth Rayees Ahmed Ganai succumbed on Wednesday. The 12-year-old boy, who was injured on January 25 after he fiddled with an explosive device left behind at the gunfight site, also succumbed.