On Pakistan Day eve, govt detains separatists

Ishfaq Tantry

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, March 22

The authorities in Kashmir have launched a crackdown on separatists on the eve of Pakistan Day.

Separatists leader and National Front chairman Nayeem Khan was detained at the Srinagar airport as he was on the way to New Delhi to take part in the Pakistan Day celebrations, slated to be held at the Pakistan High Commission on March 23.

The authorities today also detained Mukhtar Waza and Shahid-ul-Islam of the moderate Hurriyat faction, headed by Mirwaiz Umar, as the duo were supposed to represent the faction at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi on Pakistan Day.

Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit had invited all the top separatist leaders to the function in New Delhi on March 23, but most of the top rung separatists are under house detention or under arrest.

Though Pakistan invite to Hurriyat leaders is nothing new, but every time such an invite is extended to the Kashmiri separatists it invites a lot of media attention.

Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Shabir Shah are among the top Hurriyat leaders who are already under house arrest, while JKLF chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik has been lodged at the Central Jail, Srinagar.

After his arrest from the airport today, Khan was taken to the Sadar police station, from where he was shifted to his residence and placed under house arrest.

Condemning the arrest of Nayeem Khan, a National Front spokesman said that it exhibited the “frustration of the ruling regime”. He said Khan was about to leave for New Delhi to attend the function of Pakistan National Day on Thursday when he was arrested.

Condemning the continuous house detention of Mirwaiz, the moderate Hurriyat faction in a statement today also criticised the authorities for placing Hurriyat media adviser Shahid-ul-Islam under house detention and arresting Hurriyat executive leader Mukhtar Waza and termed the action against the Hurriyat leaders as un-democratic and against the principles.

Hurriyat condemns detention of its leaders

Srinagar: The hardline faction of the Hurriyat Conference, led by Syed Ali Geelani, on Wednesday condemned the detention of separatist leaders ahead of Pakistan Day function on Thursday, for which they were invited to Islamabad’s embassy in New Delhi. The separatist faction in a statement termed the detention as borne “out of frustration”. “This decision has been taken out of frustration and it has no constitutional and moral justification,” a spokesman for the separatist amalgam said. — TNS