The Jammu Kashmir police have detained separatist leader Yasin Malik as well as dozens of Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) leaders in several parts of the Valley. The detentions come ahead of the SC hearing on Article 35A.Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Chairman Yasin Malik has been arrested in a crackdown on leaders in Indian occupied Kashmir (IoK), Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said on Saturday.Indian police took Malik into custody after they raided his Maisuma residence in Srinagar and lodged him at Kothibagh police station, the Kashmir Media Service(KMS) reported.
According to Mehbooba Mufti, the president of the Jammu & Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party, Hurriyat leaders and workers of the JI have been arrested over the past 24 hours.In a post shared on Twitter, Mufti said: "Fail to understand such an arbitrary move which will only precipitate matters in J&K [occupied Jammu and Kashmir]. Under what legal grounds are their arrests justified? You can imprison a person but not his ideas."
The developments have led to panic and confusion in the Valley, with protests and spontaneous shutdowns called in several places.The development comes two days after the security of 18 Hurriyat leaders and more than 150 others in the state was withdrawn by the government, following the Pulwama attack that killed 40 CRPF personnel on February 14. The state government had argued that this would make an additional 1000 men available for routine police work. The decision had been condemned by former chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti.