Kashmiri separatists stopped from meeting to discuss NIA raids, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq put under house arrest

Srinagar: Authorities on Monday prevented separatists from holding a meeting at residence of hardline Hurriyat Conference chairman Syed Ali Geelani, placing several leaders, including Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, under house arrest.

A posse of police personnel were posted outside Geelani’s residence at Hyderpora where the separatists leaders were to hold a meeting and later address a press conference, a police official said.

He said no one was allowed to enter Geelani’s residence.

“Mirwaiz has once again been put under arrest since late Sunday evening. He was to attend the joint resistance meeting at veteran leader Geelani’s residence today,” a Hurriyat spokesman said.

“The anti-Kashmiri state resorted to its usual tactic of curbing the leadership, once again showing that Kashmir is ruled by the forces’ might,” he added.

JKLF chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik was taken into preventive custody and lodged at a police station in Srinagar.  The Jammu and Kashmir Police on Monday disallowed a separatist meeting in Srinagar scheduled to discuss the fallout of last week’s raids by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

A large contingent of police and the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) was deployed outside the uptown Hyderpora residence of senior separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani to prevent entry into the octogenarian’s house.

After separatist leaders Nayeem Khan, Farooq Ahmad Dar and Gazi Javaid Baba confessed in an India Today TV news channel expose that they had been receiving funds from Pakistan to foment trouble in Kashmir, the NIA registered FIRs to investigate the issue.

The NIA also carried out raids in Srinagar and Jammu city on Sunday. Some raids were also carried out in Delhi last week in this connection.

With inputs from agencies