Two days after the union home ministry banned the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) led by Muhammad Yasin Malik, around half a dozen leaders of the organisation were arrested from different parts of the Valley in nocturnal raids by the police, even as the hunt “for others” continues, officials said.
The MHA Friday banned the JKLF for allegedly propagating”anti-national and separatist sentiments”.
Following the ban, an official said the police carried outraids at several places including Baramulla, Ganderbal and southern Kashmirareas last night.
“So far, around half a dozen JKLF people (sic) have beenarrested,” a senior police officer, in know-how of these raids, told GreaterKashmir.
“Hunt for others is on,” he said.
In Ganderbal district, a source said the JKLF districtpresident Bashir Ahmad Boya and his deputy were arrested by the police in anocturnal raid.
In a similar raid in Keeri area of Baramulla district, theJKLF’s district president Abdur Rashid Mugloo was arrested, the source said.”The raids were also carried out in Pulwama and other parts of southernKashmir,” he said.
The police officer said in each police district, one FIRunder unlawful activities (prevention) Act (UAPA) has been registered againstthe JKLF. “The arrested persons are being booked under the same FIR”. “Bookingany of these arrested persons under the Public Safety Act or for a prolongedperiod will be decided after the background check of these persons isconducted,” the official said. He saidraids are being carried out after the JKLF leaders and activists “failed” toattend respective police stations.
“We are calling them to police stations but most of themdon’t turn up,” he said. The officer said from Monday onwards, the police willbe assisting magistrates in sealing the offices and “other locations” of theJKLF.
“The regulatory orders will be issued on Monday and seizureaction will start thereafter,” he said.
The regulatory orders will empower magistrates, assisted bythe police, to seize offices and other properties of JKLF leaders andactivists. Pertinently, in a major crackdown in February last week, dozens ofJamaat-e-Islami leaders and activists were arrested in raids by the policeacross Kashmir. Several JeI leaders werelater booked under the Public Safety Act. The organisation (JeI, J&K) wasalso banned by the union ministry of home affairs last month.