Srinagar under curfew after Masarat Alam’s arrest

SRINAGAR - Curfew was imposed in Srinagar and other major towns of the Kashmir Valley to prevent violence, police said Tuesday, a day after the arrest of hardline Hurriyat leader Masarat Alam.

“Curfew has been imposed in Srinagar city, Ganderbal, Baramulla, Sopore, Handwara, Kupwara, Pattan, Palhalan, Delina and some other towns as a precautionary measure, a police officer said here.

Alam, chief of the separatist Muslim League, is the general secretary of the hardline faction of the Hurriyat Conference led by Syed Ali Geelani.

Sources in Jammu said Alam was likely to be moved to the winter capital.

He had been at the forefront of organising protests, sit-ins and marches in the last four months that has seen more than 100 people being killed in Kashmir. Alam had announced the Quit Kashmir campaign of Geelani’s group in June this year.

He was released from jail in June but jumped bail and immediately went underground to evade arrest.

He was arrested from the house of his maternal uncle in Wagund area in Srinagar district, a police official had confirmed Monday evening.

Geelani reacted predictably: I am pained to learn about Masarat Alam’s arrest, but arrests and detentions cannot suppress our freedom struggle.”

Shops, educational institutions, public and private transport, banks, post offices and other businesses remained shut in Srinagar because of curfew though authorities did not restrain movement of pedestrians who showed proper identification.

Our intention is that life must return to normal, and that is why civilian movement is being allowed after proper identification,” a police officer said here.