Violent Clashes Reported
SRINAGAR: Senior separatist leader, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq has been detained by the police to prevent him from visiting the curfew-bound Shopian town in south Kashmir.
His supporters have forced shopkeepers to down shutters in Rajouri Kadal locality, a hub of Mirwaiz loyalists in old quarters of the Srinagar city, witnesses said.
A strict curfew entered its 11th day today in Shopian town where five people have been shot dead by the paramilitary CRPF since September 7.
Mirwaiz, who heads the moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference, said he had planned to visit Shopian to urge people to defy the curfew.
But the police forced him into an official van just after he stepped out of his office at Rajbagh in Srinagar. The separatist leader has given the government a deadline of 24 hours to lift the curfew in Shopian.
“Or else I will call upon the entire valley to march towards Shopian,” he told reporters before he was taken away.
As soon as the news of his detention spread, his supporters took to the streets in Rajouri Kadal locality in downtown Srinagar. A businessman in the area told FreePress that angry youth were seen asking shopkeepers to close down.
Reports of protestors clashing with the police and paramilitaries were also reported.
He was lodged at Police Station Rajbagh till last reports came in.
