Separatists under house arrest, Valley calm on Martyrs' Day

The authorities on Sunday placed all the three top separatist leaders --- Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Syed Ali Geelani and Yasin Malik --- under house arrest to foil their first joint rally on Monday to commemorate the killings of civilians in 1931. Security around the residences of all the top separatists has been beefed up in Srinagar. They have been asked to stay inside their residences on Monday.

The authorities on Sunday placed all the three top separatist leaders --- Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Syed Ali Geelani and Yasin Malik --- under house arrest to foil their first joint rally on Monday to commemorate the killings of civilians in 1931. Security around the residences of all the top separatists has been beefed up in Srinagar. They have been asked to stay inside their residences on Monday.

A Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) spokesman claimed that besides Malik, the group’s zonal president Noor Muhammad Kalwal’s residence was also raided last night by the police. “Kalwal has been arrested and shifted to police station Nowhata,” said the spokesman.

Moderate Hurriyat chairman Farooq also alleged that the police stopped him from participating in religious gatherings on Sunday.

“This is direct interference of the state authorities in my religious rights. The move by the government to impose restrictions on movement of pro-freedom leaders is condemnable and draconian in nature,” said the Mirwaiz.

Hardline Hurriyat’s spokesman Ayaz Akbar was placed under house arrest since morning. In a rare unified move, the separatists are planning a rally from Srinagar’s Jamia Masjid to the premises of the Naqsbandh Shrine, where those killed on July 13, 1931 are buried. The killings are observed as ‘Martyrs Day’ by the Jammu and Kashmir government. Senior Peoples Democratic Party and BJP leaders are scheduled to pay visit to the shrine and offer floral tributes there.

Opposition National Conference (NC) working president Omar Abdullah, while paying homage to the martyrs, said: “The best way to pay homage to the martyrs is to take a pledge to safeguard the state from the nefarious designs of certain political parties and entities to launch an assault on Article 370 and the state’s special status.”

He said this pledge is not a partisan pledge but one that every proud citizen of the state has to take to protect the state’s honour and dignity at all costs.