Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Sept 9: Three top separatist leaders were today prevented by police from visiting National Investigation Agency (NIA) headquarters at Delhi where they were scheduled to protest and court arrest against probe agency’s ongoing raids in terror funding case.
The separatist leaders including Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Yasin Malik and Syed Ali Shah Geelani were scheduled to leave for Delhi at 1:00 pm today and had their flights booked at 3:00 pm. However, sources said, the police detained Malik last night and shifted him to central jail here while it placed Mirwaiz and Geelani under house detention. The authorities also imposed restrictions in certain quarters of downtown city and at Maisuma here.
A police officer told Excelsior that the separatists had planned a rally from Jama Masjid in Nowhatta area here to Srinagar Airport and that is why they were detained. “We had no problem with their Delhi visit. They are free to go anywhere but they wanted to create mess by mobilizing people and taking out rally from Jama Masjid,” he said. The officer said there were apprehensions with regard to law and order if separatists would have been allowed to mobilize people.
A spokesman of the joint separatist leadership alliance condemned the police action against its leaders and imposition of restrictions in city areas. “This move completely exposes the so-called investigation and its actual purpose. If they (separatist trio) themselves volunteered to go to Delhi and let the investigating agency arrest them and ask them regarding the charges leveled against their organizations and the people’s political movement, why were they barred?”, he asked.
The separatist leaders demanded an end to what they termed harassment by NIA. “By stopping the resistance leadership from courting arrest, giving contradictory statements and creating a law and order bogey they have exposed themselves and their bluff. The NIA should put an immediate end to this harassment,” they said. The separatists also reiterated their call for shutdown tomorrow against the ongoing visit of Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
Meanwhile, the restrictions were today again imposed in Nowhatta, Gojwara, Rajouri Kadal, Bohri Kadal and adjoining areas. Hundreds of security forces men were deployed to enforce these restrictions while people faced massive inconvenience due to curbs on their movement. The restrictions were also imposed in Maisuma area of civil lines. The restrictions were, however, eased in the afternoon.
According to the District Magistrate Srinagar, restrictions under Section 144 of CrPC will remain in force under the jurisdictions of police stations Nowhatta, M R Gunj, Rainawari, Khanyar, Safakadal and Maisuma in district Srinagar on September 10 Sunday as a precautionary measure to avoid any untoward incident.
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