SRINAGAR, Sept 7: As foreign ministers of India and Pakistan talked in Islamabad to review the last round of peace talks, police in Kashmir detained senior separatist leaders after they took out a protest march demanding that the two leaders focus mainly on Kashmir issue in their meeting.
Pro-Independence leader and chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Malik led a rally from party headquarters at Maisuma shortly after Friday prayers.
Police swung into action and detained him alongwith several of his supporters near the Budshah bridge nearby.
The separatist leader had organised the rally to ask India and Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir issue in accordance with the wishes and aspirations of the people of the state.
“It will be a historic blunder if Kashmir issue is ignored by the two countries in the foreign secretary level talks scheduled in Islamabad. Kashmir issue is the bone of contention between the two countries and needs immediate resolution for everlasting peace in the region,” Malik told reporters before being taken away by the police.
India’s foreign minister S.M Krishna is on a three-day visit to Pakistan to hold talks with his counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar over various issues including trade and commerce, in which the two south-Asian nuclear rivals have made significant improvements lately, bettering bilateral relations.
“We are not against the meeting of the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan, but we demand that the meeting focus on Kashmir, which is the basic human problem that concerns the political destiny of 12 million people,” Malik said.
Meanwhile, Police prevented senior separatist leader and chairman of the hardline faction of the Hurriyat Conference, Syed Ali Shah Geelani from offering Friday prayers, his spokesman said.
The spokesperson also issued photographs to all media organisations to apparently counter claims by the state’s counsel in the Supreme Court that the separatist leader was not under any house detention.
