AP, Srinagar :
Indian police arrested a top Kashmiri separatist leader on Friday for leading an anti-India demonstration and detained two others to prevent a planned protest in the Himalayan region.
Masarat Alam was initially placed under house arrest on Thursday night and then formally arrested Friday, police officer K. Rajendra said. The arrest came just weeks after he was released from five years in prison for organizing anti-India protests in 2010.
Police also put two other separatist leaders, Syed Ali Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, under house arrest to prevent them from leading a planned march Friday to protest the killing of a militant commander’s brother in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir, Rajendra said.
The Indian army said the man was killed in a gunbattle along with a militant on Monday, while his relatives and local residents said he was tortured to death.
Police said Alam joined thousands of Kashmiris waving Pakistani flags at a rally in Srinagar on Wednesday and chanted “provocative and seditious slogans like ‘Long live Pakistan’ and ‘We want freedom.'”
Indian police arrested a top Kashmiri separatist leader on Friday for leading an anti-India demonstration and detained two others to prevent a planned protest in the Himalayan region.
Masarat Alam was initially placed under house arrest on Thursday night and then formally arrested Friday, police officer K. Rajendra said. The arrest came just weeks after he was released from five years in prison for organizing anti-India protests in 2010.
Police also put two other separatist leaders, Syed Ali Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, under house arrest to prevent them from leading a planned march Friday to protest the killing of a militant commander’s brother in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir, Rajendra said.
The Indian army said the man was killed in a gunbattle along with a militant on Monday, while his relatives and local residents said he was tortured to death.
Police said Alam joined thousands of Kashmiris waving Pakistani flags at a rally in Srinagar on Wednesday and chanted “provocative and seditious slogans like ‘Long live Pakistan’ and ‘We want freedom.'”
