Srinagar, Mar 8: Life across Kashmir was affected on Friday due to a protest shutdown called by Joint Hurriyat leadership against the detention of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman Yasin Malik and also the arrests of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) cadres. Authorities also imposed restrictions in Maisuma, Rainawari, Khanyar, M.R. Gunj and Safa Kadal areas of Srinagar.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was placed under house arrest at his residence. Syed Ali Geelani continues to remain under house arrest in Hyderpora locality of Srinagar.
Shops, public transport and other businesses remained shut across the valley.
Heavy contingents of state police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were deployed in sensitive areas.
Malik was detained under the Public Safety Act (PSA) on Thursday and was shifted to the Kot Bhalwal Jail in Jammu district. Anybody detained under the PSA can be held for a maximum of two years without any judicial intervention.
Some of the recently detained senior JeI leaders have also been booked under the PSA and were shifted to jails outside the valley.
Meanwhile, for the consecutive second week, the authorities didn’t allow Friday congregational prayers at historic Jamia Masjid Srinagar.
Reports said that the heavy deployment was made since morning in the Nowhatta area to ensure strict restrictions. Police sources said that deployment was made to “maintain law and order”.
Chief cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq took to social networking site Twitter wrote: “For the 2nd consecutive week mandatory Friday Prayers barred at #JamaMasjid Srinagar by the ruling regime. Restrictions Imposed in #ShareKhaas, People caged in homes, leadership either under #HouseArrest or jailed under PSA.”
Ailing Malik placed in solitary confinement: JKLF
Srinagar, Mar 8: A day after JKLF Chairman Yasin Malik was slapped with PSA and shifted to Kot Bhalwal jail in Jammu, its workers and leaders carried out a protest near Budshah Chowk on Friday.
The speakers in the protests, as per a JKLF spokesperson, said that the manner in Malik was “manhandled by the police at the orders of civil administration, blocked to see his mother and sisters, deprived of a compulsory medical checkup and rushed to Kot-Bhalwal jail Jammu is shameful and condemnable.”
The spokesperson said that Malik has been put into solitary confinement in the jail even though authorities know he is a known heart patient and suffers from many other ailments.
“He has been locked inside a barrack and singled out from all other inmates. This revengeful act is a deliberate attempt to damage his health and we caution the so-called rulers to refrain from all such undemocratic and unethical acts,” the spokesperson said.
