Raids continue across valley, Veeri among detainees

Huzaif Riaz

SRINAGAR, (PTK): The crackdown against religious and separatist leaders continue for the second day throughout Kashmir valley.

A number of separatist leaders and activists, mainly those belonging to rightwing Jamaat-e-Islami, were arrested in nocturnal raids on their homes across the Valley.

Reports pouring in here said that the J&K police assisted by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) at places raided the homes of the leaders and activists of Jamaat-e-Islami , Jamaat-e-Ahle Hadith and some other separatist parties in different parts of the Valley during the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday and took many of them into custody.

According to reports coming from Anantnag , the popular religious speaker and Naib-Ameer Jamaat-e-Ahle Hadees Mushtaq Veeri was arrested from his residence in Bijbehara area of Anantnag in South Kashmir .

In a similar raid , Difayay Jamaat-e-Ahle Hadees leader Mahammad Maqbool Akhrani was arrested from his residence in Devser village of Kulgam.

Bashir Ahmad Rather who is brother of People’s league Member Nasir Ahmad of Dadsara , Tral was arrest in a similar way.

Raids were also reported from Budgam where many Jamaat-e-Islami and Jamaat-e-Tulba members were arrested.

The crackdown on the separatists has come close on the heels of the deadly terror attack in the southern district of Pulwama in which 49 CRPF personnel were killed and several others wounded on February 14.

The official sources said that the crackdown against the separatists will continue and more arrested are likely to take place in coming days.

Earlier Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik was also taken into preventive custody by the police here on Friday. (PTK)