Leaders’ arrest-villager martyrdom spark protests in H-Kashmir

By: A. A. Rathor

SRINAGAR, Held Kashmir: Kashmiris took to the streets of Indian held-Srinagar protesting against the arrest of their leaders by Indian police on Wednesday on the 10th anniversary of the Bijbehara incident chanting anti-India slogans.

According to reports police baton charged demonstrators, using teargas in a bid to disperse them.

The three top Kashmiri leaders were seized after thousands of protesters blocked the national highway over the alleged martyrdom by security forces of a physically handicapped 60-year-old villager Ghulam Muhammed Khatana. Local residents said members of the Border Security Force martyred him Tuesday outside his home in his Lehan Dajan village, 85 kilometers (50 miles) south of Srinagar.

Chairman of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front Yasin Malik was arrested from his home in central Srinagar. Two other senior leaders, Shabir Shah and Syed Ali Shah Gilani, were placed under house arrest when they were planning similar demonstrations in the valley.

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