Hurriyat leaders under house arrest in Srinagar

SRINAGAR - Senior separatist leaders of the moderate wing of Jammu and Kashmir’s separatist Hurriyat Conference were Thursday placed under house arrest to prevent them from staging a march on World Human Rights Day.

Those arrested include chief Mirwaiz Umer Farooq as well as Moulvi Abbas Ansari, Shabir Shah and Naeem Khan.

The moderate Hurriyat Conference had announced that its leaders would march and stage a sit-in here to focus the world’s attention on alleged human rights violations in the Kashmir Valley.

Police also arrested activists of a breakaway group of the pro-Independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), including its convenor Javed Ahmed Mir, while staging a protest here.

Various separatist groups have condemned what they call “continued rights violations in Kashmir”.

Parveena Ahangar, president of the association of parents of disappeared persons, said her organisation would demonstrate as well.