Though several separatist leaders continues to remain under police custody or under house detention, police on Friday detained more separatist leaders including Muslim League (ML) General Secretary, Muhammad Rafiq Ganie and shifted them to Srinagar’s central Jail.According to sources, police in the intervening night on Thursday-Friday raided the houses of several separatist leaders including ML’s Rafiq Ganie, other ML leaders and activists, TeH’s Umar Adil and leaders and activists of other amalgams.Sources said that the leaders were arrested during the night and were lodged in Police Station Kothi Bagh. “The leaders in the wee hours of Friday were shifted to Srinagar’s central jail,” sources said.Notably, JKLF chief, Muhammad Yasin Mailk who arrested on July 9 is also languishing in Srinagar’s central Jail.However, the other separatist leaders including Hurriyat (G) chairman, Syed Ali Geelani, Hurriyat (M) chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, senior Hurriyat leader, Ag Syed Hassan and others continue to remain under house detention while several other pro-freedom leaders and activists are languishing in different jails in the Valley.
Pertinently, Geelani and Mirwiaz defied the restrictions several times to lead a protest march towards Anantnag, Kulgam and Jamia Masjid, Dargah and Eidgah Srinagar but police foiled their attempt and detained them. “After spending some hours in police custody, police released both the leaders,” reports said.The leadership including Geelani, Mirwaiz and Malik have been issuing protest programmes through a joint statement and have been appealing people to follow the programmes strictly.Meanwhile, strict curfew and restrictions continued on 35th consecutive day in Kashmir today while the authorities once again snapped cellular services in the Valley.The curfew and restrictions as per officials were imposed to thwart any possible protests against the civilian killings in Kashmir who were killed during protests against the killing of Hizb commander, Burhan Wani in a ‘gunfight’ in Bumdoora village of Kokernag in South Kashmir’s Anantnag district on July 8.More than 50 civilians were killed while more than 2200 civilians have sustained injuries during the protests across Kashmir. (KNS)