SRINAGAR: Senior separatist leader Nayeem Ahmad Khan has been arrested and sent to judicial remand by a court in Pattan town of north Kashmir.
The leader, member of the Mirwaiz-led Hurriyat Conference, has been arrested in connection with a case against him under Section 13 in the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in Police Station Pattan lodged in 2000.
The charge-sheet in this case was filed in the court in the year 2008.
The court had issued a non bailable warrant against him.
“Sub-Judge Pattan sent Nayeem Khan to judicial custody and he has been shifted to Central Jail Srinagar,” a police spokesman said on Friday.
Meanwhile, independent MLA Langate Abdul Rashid Sheikh has condemned Khan’s arrest. “This has exposed the tall claims made by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and his colleagues that separatists must talk to the Centre government for the resolution of the Kashmir issue.
The Chief Minister must explain that as if this is the way to start a meaningful dialogue, which he has been talking often to resolve the Kashmir issue. The government must answer that why is it always in a hurry to suppress Kashmiris by involving them in fake cases?,” Sheikh said.
Hardline Hurriyat Conference chairman Syed Ali Geelani has also criticised the administration opening of the cases against Khan and other separatist leaders as unwanted.
