At least 10 persons were arrested by the J&K Police in Srinagar on Thursday, in a major clampdown on the protesters who hit the streets as the JKLF chief Yasin Malik’s verdict was being announced on Wednesday in New Delhi.
Those arrested were involved in “hooliganism, rioting, anti-national sloganeering and stone-throwing” outside Malik’s house in Maisuma area of Srinagar prior to the verdict in a case related to terrorism and secessionist activities, police said. Midnight raids were carried out to arrest the 10 accused, “including the key accused involved in the commission of the crime”.
“It is strongly reiterated that no attempt at creating a law and order situation in the Valley will be tolerated and all such mischievous attempts by vested interests will be treated with full force of the law,” police said. They appealed to the people not to indulge in any “such activities that have the potential to destroy their career and trouble their families”.
Police said a case under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act had been registered. “The main instigators of this hooliganism will be booked under the Public Safety Act, which allows detention without trial for two years.”
Pained, says Sajad Lone
Sajad Lone, who heads the Peoples Conference, said on Thursday that his party was pained by the sentence given to Malik. “Irrespective of his ideology, we believe that dialogue and peace should be the objectives of the future. We now hope that magnanimity, reconciliation and forgiveness will define the policy of the Government of India in the future,” a spokesman said.
The PC said if the Centre was really keen to right the wrongs of the past, it was incumbent upon them to check the origins of this violence, which made a young man like Yasin Malik and thousands like him to pick up guns in 1987.
“Unless and until the perpetrators of 1987 are investigated, unless and until you bring to book those who denied democracy which led to eruption of militancy and gun culture, there cannot be a closure,” the PC said.
