launching the first major campaign to curb the separatists’ proposed anti-election activities in Kashmir, the Jammu & Kashmir Police on Thursday detained several top leaders of the secessionist camp including Yasin Malik and Shabir Shah.
The campaign for the five-phased Assembly election has formally begun after the poll notification for the first phase was issued on October 28. The voting for the first phase is scheduled on November 25. The response to the election process is lukewarm in Kashmir Valley as life has not returned to normal in the aftermath of devastating floods of September.
All major separatist groups have called for poll boycott but no group had announced the mode of their campaign.
Sources said that the police have launched a massive hunt for the separatist leaders and detained many of them at various police stations. Reports said that police have detained JKlF chief Mohammad Yasin Malik, Democratic Freedom Party Chairman Shabir Ahmad Shah, Tahreek-e-Hurriyat General Secretary Ashraf Sehrai, National Front Chairman Nayeem Ahmad Khan and other senior functionaries of several groups including Abdullah Taari, Ayaz Akbar, Yousuf Naqash, Zafar Akbar, Javaid Ahmad Mir and Abdul Ahad Para.
Several separatist escaped the arrest as residences were raided in their absence.
The most vocal anti-election campaigner and hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani is already under house-arrest.
The crackdown against separatists was launched on a day when Director General of Police K Rajendra took stock of the poll preparedness in sensitive south Kashmir zone. The DGP told officers that during the election process “trouble makers and the sympathisers of anti-national elements should be kept under continuous vigil”.
“Any persons creating trouble for the people in their democratic right of franchise would not be tolerated,” Rajendra said.
The Inspector General of Police (Kashmir range) Abdul Gani Mir described the detentions as “preventive action”. He said nobody would be allowed to disrupt polls and action would be initiated against “all those elements who try to intimidate people”.
Rajendra said that police would continue to mount pressure on the “subversive elements including the dormant ones to curb their activities”. He asked the officers to identify hypersensitive areas and deploy additional forces in these areas to ensure smooth conduct of elections. Night patrolling on daily basis should be ensured in the areas as these elements would try to hit soft targets to disrupt the peace, he instructed.
Meanwhile, Yasin Malik’s detention evoked immediate reaction in Maisuma locality of capital Srinagar where he resides and runs his group’s headquarters. Police fired tear gas shells and cane charged the violent protesters who pelted stones to show resentment.
