MAJOR CRACKDOWN ON KASHMIR SEPARATISTS
SRINAGAR — Indian authorities detained over 200 separatists in raids across Kashmir and sent thousands of reinforcements to the troubled territory on Saturday as Prime Minister Narendra Modi stepped up warnings to Pakistan over a suicide bomb attack.
As international concern grows over India-Pakistan sabre-rattling, residents of Kashmir, at the centre of a decades-old struggle between the neighbours, reported heightened military activity.
The region has been on edge since the February 14 attack on an Indian convoy which killed 40 soldiers and was claimed by Pakistanbased group Jaish-e-Mohammed.
India has accused Pakistan of supporting the attack — a claim rejected by the Islamabad government — and there have been widespread calls for nationalist leader Modi to order a reprisal strike.
About 10,000 paramilitaries started arriving in Kashmir on Saturday, a day after India ordered the reinforcements.
Security at airports across the country was boosted on Saturday after Air India’s control centre in Mumbai received a phone call threatening to hijack one of its planes to Pakistan, PTI reported.
Modi told a rally in Rajasthan that the country was “angry” about the attack in the Pulwama district of India administered Kashmir.
“After the Pulwama attack, you must have seen how Pakistan is being brought to account one step at a time. They are in a state of panic because of our government’s decisions,” Modi said, speaking in Hindi. “We will not sit quietly after taking this pain. We know how to crush terrorism,” he added. “We have given full freedom to the military.”
Among those taken into custody in the crackdown in Kashmir were senior figures in Jamaate-Islami and the Hurriyat Conference. —
srinagar — More than 100 rebels in Kashmir were detained in overnight raids, police officials said on Saturday, as part of a crackdown on groups that might cause trouble ahead of nationwide elections set to be held by May.
The move comes days after a suicide car bombing killed at least 40 Indian security personnel on February 14. The Indian government has warned that it will use all options in its power to avenge the attack claimed by Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed.
“The arrival of more troops and the arrests of leaders and activists of separatist groups is part of an election exercise undertaken to ensure free and fair elections,” said one senior police official in the state.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party is set to seek re-election in nationwide polls that are due to be held by May. “Anti-election campaigns will not be allowed and separatists will be detained to ensure free, fair and transparent elections in the state,” the police official said.
The overnight arrests in the state included those of many senior members of Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI).
The arrests led to violent scenes in parts of Kashmir, with stonethrowing protesters met by police firing teargas.
JeI’s leader, Dr Abdul Hamid Fayaz and Yasin Malik, the head of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front that wants independence from both India and Pakistan, were among those detained.
A spokesman for India’s home ministry did not respond to a request for comment on the arrests or troop deployments.
Next week India’s Supreme Court is also expected to hear a petition attempting to remove an article in the country’s constitution that prevents non-residents from moving to Jammu and Kashmir, the Indian state that contains Muslim-majority Kashmir. If passed it could further escalate tensions in the region.
A spokesman for JeI said the arrests of its members were a “well designed ploy,” ahead of any such ruling. —
In the past 24 hours, Hurriyat leaders and workers of Jamaat organisation have been arrested. Fail to understand such an arbitrary move which will only precipitate matters... Under what legal grounds are their arrests justified? You can imprison a person but not his ideas Mehbooba Mufti, former J&K CM