Separatist leader of Kashmir and Chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), Mohammad Yasin Malik has been arrested from Druggen area in Srinagar today when he was trying to lead a protest march toward the headquarters of the UN Military Observers Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) in Sonawar area after Friday prayers.
Malik was whisked away by police along with some supporters. Separatists had called for a protest sit-in outside the UNMOGIP in Srinagar on Friday to highlight the “repression and innocent killings in Kashmir”. Authorities had blocked all roads leading to the UNMOGIP Headquarters, preventing both pedestrian and vehicular movement in the area.
While earlier in the day authorities imposed restrictions in parts of Srinagar to prevent a separatist called protest shutdown. The District Magistrate of Srinagar, Farooq Ahmad Lone said that the restrictions under section 144 CrPC have been imposed in the areas falling under the jurisdiction of Seven Police Stations — Khanyar, M. R. Gunj, Maisuma, Rainawari, Nowhatta, Ram Munshibagh and Safa Kadal.
The separatists have also called for a sit-in outside the uptown Sonawar headquarters of the UN Military Observers Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) against “repression and innocent killings in Kashmir”. Mohammad Yasin Malik went underground to abstain areest and Senior separatist leaders Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Syed Ali Geelani had been placed under house arrest.
All roads leading to the UNMOGIP headquarters have been sealed. Educational institutions, shops, public transport and other businesses remained closed, but inter district transport moved almost normally. While the movement of the pilgrims of Amarnath Yatra had was unaffected by the shutdown call.
