Kashmir to get tough with separatists

In a bid to restore a semblance of order in the troubled Kashmir Valley, the Jammu and Kashmir government has decided to get tough with separatists, according to official sources.

In a bid to restore a semblance of order in the troubled Kashmir Valley, the Jammu and Kashmir government has decided to get tough with separatists, according to official sources.

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Top separatist leaders like hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani and his rival Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and their hardcore supporters are said to be on the police 'wanted list'.

According to the sources, all the supporters of the separatist leaders as well as middle-rung leaders would be arrested to isolate them "and make them non-functional", a reliable source told IANS.

"This strategy has been adopted to create a situation which takes fear out of the minds of the people who have been harassed by the street protests engineered by the separatists," the source said.

More than 110 people were killed in clashes with police and paramilitary forces in the past five months in the valley. Many more were wounded.