In a significant move, separatists have decided to hold talks with Kashmiri Pandit migrants to discuss their return to the Valley.
Jammu and Kashmir authorities have placed Srinagar and other towns under an undeclared curfew to thwart separatists' protests after Friday prayers.The separatist coordination committee, comprising representatives of both groups of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, the Bar Association and local traders, had called for protests in Kashmir today.Shops and businesses remained closed and vehicles stayed off the roads in Srinagar today.
The moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference today rejected Centre's latest initiative on Kashmir, saying it was 'disappointing' as it reflected lack of willingness to meet the aspirations of the people.
All Party Hurriyat Conference Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has claimed that he was placed under house arrest minutes after his meeting with the all-party delegation at his residence in downtown Srinagar.
Police blamed activists of hard line faction of Hurriyat Conference led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Muslim league headed by underground separatist leader Masrat Alam Bhat for carrying out the incidents of arson as part of a pre-planned conspiracy to disrupt Eid celebrations.
If talks are progressing in the right direction, the violence will come down automatically," the Mirwaiz contended.
The Hurriyat delegation, also comprising Abdul Gani Bhat and Bilal Lone, was slated to return on January 24.
At least five persons were injured in fresh clashes between youths and police following an attempt by activists of a women separatist organisation to take out a march in defiance of curfew orders in Srinagar, officials said.
The strike called by the two groups of the separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference brought in a complete shutdown and undeclared curfew in the Valley on Monday, a day after violence left one person dead and over a dozen people injured in police firing Srinagar.
Markets, banks, semi-government institutions were closed and transport remained off the roads in Srinagar and other major towns in the state in response to the call given by hardline faction of Hurriyat Conference to protest against booking of its chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani under Public Safety Act (PSA) and continued detention of other separatist leaders.
Violent clashes broke out between a group of youths and security forces in parts of the city on Saturday, leaving a youth and a policeman injured in stone pelting as separatist groups called a strike in Srinagar condemning the police action on Jamia Masjid on Friday.
Kashmir remained the biggest hurdle in relations between India and Pakistan and it should top the agenda of any talks between the two countries, moderate Hurriyat Conference leader Mirwaiz Umer Farooq said on Friday.
A shutdown called by the hardline separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) against the alleged molestation and murder of a college girl in north Kashmir Kupwara district once again crippled normal life across the valley on Friday.
Fifteen people have been reported killed after a passenger bus fell into a gorge in Reasi area of Jammu district
Former foreign minister in the Atal Bihari government Jaswant Singh said that if voted to power the National Democratic Alliance would continue the process of holding dialogue with Pakistan on the Kashmir issue and simuatenously engage the All Party Hurriyat Conference as was done during Vajpayee's tenure as prime minister.
Life in entire Kashmir Valley was thrown out of gear on Friday following a separatist shutdown and incidents of violence those left 14 persons including six cops wounded.
Separatist groups in Kashmir on Thursday reacted angrily to the death sentence awarded to two locals, who were held guilty by a Delhi court in the 1996 Lajpat Nagar bomb blast case, in which 13 persons were killed.The moderate and hard-line groups of the separatist conglomerate All Parties Hurriyat Conference, headed by Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq and Syed Ali Shah Geelani respectively, have called for a protest shutdown on Friday against the death sentence.
Life in Kashmir was in Tuesday paralysed in view of a strike called by the hard-line separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani against the conviction of six Kashmiris in the 1996 Lajpat Nagar bomb blast case in New Delhi.
Curfew like security arrangements continued in Srinagar to thwart any militant strike during the ongoing two-day round table conference on Kashmir convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Posters printed in Urdu, seen pasted in several villages of Anantnag and Pulwama districts of South Kashmir, have asked people to boycott the polls.
Pakistan has assured that it would not put the core issue of Kashmir on the backburner, chairman of the Hurriyat Conference Mirwaiz Umer Farooq said on Friday.
In a crackdown on separatists, the Jammu and Kashmir police on Thursday arrested over 70 people, for allegedly funding and fomenting trouble in the state.With a near curfew-like situation prevailing in the Valley after the death of a boy on Sunday, a major crackdown began in the wee hours of today morning when separatist leaders Shabir Shah and Nayeem Khan were arrested. Additional police forces were deployed outside the residence of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.
A mob set a school bus on fire in Khanyar area of Srinagar on Saturday, official sources said. A group of people stopped a bus belonging to a private school near Rangerstop in Khanyar area on Saturday morning and asked the driver and students to get off. They set the bus on fire.
The Majlis-e-Mushawarat has called for a shutdown across Kashmir on Tuesday to protest against the report of the Central Bureau of Investigation in the Shopian rape and murder case.The Hurriyat Conference's moderate faction has supported the strike.The CBI's report on the Shopian case had sparked off an agitation in the Kashmir valley, when the families of the two women, who were allegedly raped and murdered, refused to accept the report, which said they had drowned.
Syed Ali Shah Geelani, chairman of the hard-line faction of Hurriyat Conference, was arrested by the police outside a hospital in Srinagar on Friday evening, official sources said. Geelani was arrested outside SMHS hospital, where he had gone to enquire about the condition of Faizan Ahmad, a 14-year-old boy injured in police firing during a clash at Maisuma in the state capital, they said. The separatist leader sponsored a general strike in Srinagar today.
Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was placed under house arrest on Saturday morning.
Jammu and Kashmir police Wednesday evening filed an FIR against hardline separatist leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Masarat Alam Bhat and other separatist leaders 'for provocative activities and hoisting Pakistan flag' in summer capital Srinagar.
Jammu and kashmir Democratic Freedom Party chief Shabir Ahmad Shah was taken into preventive custody along with 20 of his supporters at Munwarabad to prevent him from going to martyrs graveyard.
Curfew remained in force in Kashmir Valley for the 11th day on Wednesday even as the death toll in the ongoing agitation rose to 104 after a youth succumbed to his injuries in a hospital in Srinagar.
Hardline Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani on Tuesday said the all-party meet in New Delhi is unlikely to help improve the situation in the Kashmir Valley as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's speech did not touch on the core issue of Kashmir.
"Quiet diplomacy is secret diplomacy where few people will decide things and force a solution on people of Jammu and Kashmir against their aspirations, sacrifices and 62-year struggle," Chairman of hardline faction of Hurriyat Conference Syed Ali Shah Geelani said at a function in Srinagar.
Separatists in Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday said the Centre's offer of a 'quiet' dialogue is aimed at thrusting a compromise solution on the people of the state.
The Jammu and Kashmir Police have registered a case against Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chairman of the moderate faction of Hurriyat Conference, over burning of government properties by a mob during a protest rally in Srinagar, official sources said. An FIR was registered against the Mirwaiz at Shergarhi police station in Srinagar city under sections 121, 121-A, 153, 153-A, 336 and 446 of the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC), the sources said.
"Kashmir is an issue concerning the people living in five regions -- three under Indian control and two under Pakistani control. The state should be united as it existed on August 14, 1947 and its people decide the future," Mirwaiz said addressing the congregation at Jamia Masjid in Srinagar.
Chairman of Hardline faction of Hurriyat Conference Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Mohammad Yaseen Malik were detained on Sunday when they tried to march to Handwara in north Kashmir, where situation was rife after army shot dead a suspected militant.
Curfew was on Friday lifted from Anantnag after four days even as life returned to normal in the Kashmir Valley after hardline Hurriyat Conference suspended protests for the day, the last Friday of Ramzan.
Curfew was on Friday clamped in Bandipora and Kupwara districts and Sopore town in Kashmir in view of a call given by separatists to hold demonstrations to protest the killing of several youth during clashes with security forces in the last one month. The decision to impose curfew in Bandipora and Kupwara districts and Sopore town was taken in view of the decision by the hard-line faction of the Hurriyat Conference to hold demonstrations in all district headquarters.
'Dr Singh reached out to Pakistan when he said he hopes to have a cordial relations with the neighbouring country but he did not reach out to the people of Kashmir. It is rather unfortunate,' says Hurriyat chief Mirwaiz Umer Farooz
An indefinite curfew was imposed in Srinagar on Monday and restrictions were put in place in other towns to thwart a march called by separatists.To protest the killing of three teenagers allegedly by the police, the hard-line separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference headed by Syed Ali Shah Geelani has asked people to march to south Kashmir's Anantnag town on Monday.The forces beefed up security arrangements in the old city area of Srinagar.
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