At least four persons were killed and 70 others injured when the police and paramilitary forces opened fire to bring the mob under control in Narbal area of Srinagar, after baton charges and tear gas shells failed to disperse the crowd.
Amarnath row rocks Jammu & Kashmir
On Monday morning, police swooped on the headquarters of the pro-Independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front at Maisuma, just hundred yards away from Lal Chowk, and arrested Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front Chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik.
Separatist leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq were arrested from their residences late on Sunday night, hours before the march towards Lal Chowk, official sources said.
Where Azad and the Congress failed in J&K
The arrested separatist leaders were taken to undisclosed locations and senior police officers remained tight lipped about where the separatist leaders were lodged.
Over a dozen separatist leaders, including Shakeel Ahmad Bakshi, have also been arrested.
This is the first time that moderate All Parties Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has been arrested in his 18-year-old political career, which he entered after his father Mirwaiz Maulvi Farooq was assassinated on May 21, 1990.
In Jammu, a tangled tale is written in blood
However, several separatist leaders like Shabir Shah, Naeem Ahmad Khan and Masarat Alam have gone underground to evade arrest.
Some separatist leaders including prominent Shia leader Agha Hassan Budgami have been put under house arrest.
The government's crackdown on separatists comes days after it allowed a massive rally at Eidgah Ground in Srinagar.
The historic Lal Chowk, venue of Monday's rally, has been converted into a virtual fortress with columns of paramilitary and police blocking all its entry points, which have been barricaded by corrugated tin sheets and circles of razor fitted wire.
Amarnath fallout may engulf India
Lal Chowk (Red Square), named after Moscow's Red Square, has been witness to several historic rallies including the one addressed by late Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru.
Despite the strict curfew restrictions and heavy deployment of paramilitary, people came out on the streets in several towns and in some parts of Srinagar, shouting pro-freedom slogans and trying to march towards Lal Chowk.
The protestors' clashes with the security forces have injured over 40 people, 10 of whom have received gunshot wounds.
Appeasement is never good for a nation
The police said that the mobs defied curfew in several towns of Beerwa in central Kashmir, Ajas, Hajan, Sopore, Handwara Kupwara, Kreeri in north Kashmir and Bejibehara, Kulgam, Qazigund in south Kashmir, prompting the paramilitary forces to use tear gas shells and baton charge.
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