SRINAGAR: The Delhi police have arrested senior Kashmiri separatist Yasin Malik to prevent him from sitting on a hunger strike at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Friday.
Malik, who heads the pro-Independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), was to hold a 48-hour hunger strike to press for his demands, including handing over the body of Afzal Guru.
Guru, accused of plotting the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament, was hanged in a secret operation at the Tihar jail on Feb 9.
His family and no less than the chief minister of Kashmir, Omar Abdullah had made a formal request to New Delhi that Guru’s mortal remains be returned for burial in his homeland. The request was turned down.
The JKLF leader has been taken into custody as he had announced that he will go ahead with his plans despite the Delhi Police having denied permission, media reports from Delhi say.
They say the decision came after security agencies submitted a report to the Union Home Ministry that giving permission to Malik to hold protest in Delhi may create law and order problem.
The report is further believed to have accused Malik of indulging in “anti-national” activities in the past.
It is perhaps a reference to the separatist leader’s recent visit to Pakistan where he was seen sharing dais with Lashkar-e-Toiba supremo Hafiz Mohammed Saeed. The occasion was a hunger strike by Malik against Guru’s hanging.
This created an uproar in many quarters of the country. The JKLF leader denied that he had invited Saeed, whom India accuses of masterminding the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed nearly 200 people.
