Scores of separatist leaders and their supporters were detained in Srinagar on Sunday in a police raid, which was aimed at “disallowing revival of the separatist Hurriyat and the J&K Liberation Front (JKLF)“.
A J&K Police spokesperson said they had carried out a search on the basis of credible information on the meeting of some “ex-terrorists” of the JKLF and “erstwhile separatists” at a hotel in Srinagar.
“They were brought to the Kothibagh Police Station for verification. An inquiry has started. Prima facie it came out that they were planning to revive the JKLF and the Hurriyat,” the spokesperson said.
The meeting was held at a hotel located in the city centre. Sources said over 30 separatist leaders and their supporters had assembled for it.
Among the attendees were Masroor Ansari, son of the late Hurriyat chairman Moulana Abbas Ansari and head of the Ittihadul Muslimeen. His supporters have demanded his immediate release.
“We request the office of Lieutenant Governor, J&K, to release Mr. Ansari sahib, who is a religious leader,” a supporter of Mr. Ansari said.
The leaders and supporters of the Hurriyat, headed by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, including a close aide of the Mirwaiz, were also arrested by the police for “questioning”.
Several members of the banned JKLF were also reportedly attending the meeting when they were arrested during the search, sources said.
The visibility of the separatist Hurriyat declined after the Centre ended J&K’s special constitutional position in 2019. The Hurriyat, which is an amalgam of several political parties, faced a major crackdown in the run up to August 5, 2019, when the Centre abrogated the provisions of Article 370. The authorities have disallowed any Hurriyat meeting or activity since 2019.
Sunday’s bid is also the first such effort by the Hurriyat or the JKLF to re-engage and organise a meeting since 2019, although full details of the meeting were not known immediately.
A spokesperson of the Hurriyat on Monday denied having organised any meeting in Srinagar. “Some members of the Hurriyat were detained by the police yesterday from a hotel in Srinagar, where they had gone to attend an Eid Milan luncheon,” the Hurriyat spokesperson said.
He added that those who attended this lunch were present in their individual capacity, and not as members of the Hurriyat. “It was not any Hurriyat event nor was the Hurriyat leadership aware of it. To attribute motives to Hurriyat in this regard is mere speculation and totally baseless,” the spokesperson added.
