Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Mar 13: Police today foiled proposed sit-in protest of separatists here by imposing restriction in Maisuma and Gawkadal areas of city centre and detaining separatist leaders.
The separatist leaders had planned to hold a sit-in protest here at Gaw Kadal to highlight the “plight” of detainees but police swung into action and cracked down on the separatist leaders. Police yesterday detained Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik and lodged him at Central Jail Srinagar while it also placed moderate Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq under house detention.
To thwart the protest, the police since early morning imposed restrictions in Maisuma and Gaw Kadal areas here and laid barricades and concertina wires. Besides the police, large numbers of paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were also deployed in these areas to foil separatists’ protest.
A Hurriyat spokesman said that police detained Noor Mohamad Kalwal, Advocate Yasir Dalal, Gazi Javed Baba, Ab Rashid Wani, Imtiyaz Ahmad Shah, Meraj-u-Din Parey, Siraj-u-Din Parey and Mohammad Ramzan Khoru and detained them in Kralkhud police station. They were held after they violated the restrictions and tried to take out protest march. Meanwhile, the restrictions were lifted in the afternoon here and normal life that was hit resumed peacefully.