Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Chairman Mohammad Yaseen Malik was taken into preventive custody along with four others while Chairman of breakaway Hurriyat Conference (HC) Syed Ali Shah Geelani was placed under house arrest on October 22 morning.

A joint contingent of police and paramilitary forces laid a cordon around the Hyderpora house of Chairman of breakaway Hurriyat Conference Syed Ali Shah Geelani and informed him that he has been placed under house arrest, official sources said.

A JKLF spokesman said their leaders were taken into custody from its Maisuma Headquarters as authorities apprehend that they would join mourners in Bijbehara in Anantnag district, where a handicapped person was allegedly killed in custody on October 21.

Police, assisted by paramilitary forces, raided the JKLF Headquarters in the morning and took into custody its Chairman Mohammad Yaseen Malik, Vice-Chairman Javid Ahmad Mir, Senior Hurriyat Leader Sheikh Abdul Rashid, Mohammad Sidiq Shah and Ghulam Rasool Hazari, he Said.

The spokesman said the leaders of the party were about to leave for trial in Pulwama district in connection with the ongoing signature campaign.

As JKLF supporters protested against the arrest and clashed with police, shopkeepers pulled their shutters in Maisuma in the heart of the city.

PTI