In the aftermath of the house arrests of the three Jammu and Kashmir Separatist leaders today, the moderate All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) chief Mirwaiz Umar Farooq  has said that Separatists have no intention of disrupting talks between India and Pakistan. Speaking to TV channels immediately after the arrest, Mirwaiz said it is in the interest of Kashmir that the talks go on.  


Sending out a strong message to Islamabad, India has placed Kashmiri separatists who had been invited for talks with Pakistan's National Security Advisor Sartaz Aziz, under house arrest. The Separatists were to meet the Pakistani NSA ahead of talks with the Indian counterpart Ajit Doval on Sunday.


The police detained Separatist Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik and have lodged him in the Kothibagh police station in uptown Srinagar.


Mirwaiz Farooq was put under house arrest, while hardline separatist leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani was interred at his uptown Hyderpora residence.


All the three leaders had been invited to New Delhi by the Pakistan high commissioner, Abdul Basit.
 

Early this morning, policemen in larger numbers were moved to the residences of the Separatists to prevent their movement outside their homes.


Sources said police also raided the residence of Dukhtarani Milat chief, Asiya Andrabi this morning. However, she was in her house at the time of the police raid.

Mukhtar Ahmad/Rediff.com in Srinagar.


Pic: Yasin Malik, chairman JKLF, being taken to the police station.