Curfew was clamped in parts of Srinagar, Kupwara and Kralpora towns and restrictions were imposed on people's movement in Hyderpora and Budgam towns on Sunday in view of a shutdown call by separatists across the Kashmir Valley.
Rediff.com's Jammu and Kashmir correspondent Mukhtar Shah takes a real close look at the young protestors of the Valley, their struggles and the challenges they pose.
Indian Army chief General Bikram Singh on Tuesday assured Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah that incidents of June 24 and June 30 would not happen in future.
Separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, under house arrest since Thursday, was detained on Friday when he tried to defy restrictions to lead a march to the United Nations Military Observers group office in Srinagar. "Geelani was detained and lodged in police station Humhama on the airport road when he tried to come out of his house at Hyderpora to lead a march to UNMOGIP," a police spokesman told PTI.
The arrest came minutes before Geelani was scheduled to address a press conference regarding the ongoing protests against the alleged rape and murder of two young women in south Kashmir Shopian town on Saturday last.
A senior police officer said in Srinagar that a local trader had been arrested by the special operations group of the state police from the uptown Hyderpora locality of Srinagar a few days back.
In April, Bhat was detained under the Public Safety Act for allegedly hoisting Pakistani flags and chanting anti-national slogans at a rally in uptown Hyderpora area.
An unidentified terrorist was killed in a gunbattle with security forces in north Kashmir's Kupwara on Friday, the seventh to be killed in three encounters in the district since Thursday.
About half a dozen senior leaders of both the factions of the Hurriyat Conference were on Monday put under house arrest to prevent them from participating in the scheduled demonstrations against the transfer of forest land to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board. However, police raided the Hyderpora residence of chairman of the breakaway HC Syed Ali Shah Geelani several times, who had already left for some undisclosed place.
Leaders of the two factions of the separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference met in Srinagar on Thursday for the first time after their split in 2003. Mirwaiz Moulvi Omar Farooq, accompanied by another senior separatist leader of his group, visited the uptown Hyderpora residence of Syed Ali Shah Geelani for talks, which continued for over six hours.
Hardline Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani was on Thursday placed under house arrest, a day ahead of his scheduled visit to Tral town in south Kashmir Pulwama district.
Senior separatist leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Shabir Ahmad Shah were placed under house arrest as the funeral of a youth, found dead under mysterious circumstances in New Delhi, was carried out amidst tight security in Srinagar on Thursday.
Squashing erstwhile 'separatists', marginalising the 'mainstream', and squeezing funding channels have all evidently had an impact -- at least for the moment, notes David Devadas after a visit to Srinagar.
The police picked up Masrat Alam, chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Muslim League, a constituent of the hard-line Hurriyat faction, from Srinagar's Shaheedgunj area.
A spokesman for the HC Aiyaz Akbar told UNI that a large number of Jammu and Kashmir police personnel had been deployed outside Geelani's residence in Hyderpora locality of the state since early Saturday morning.
A spokesman said Geelani was to lead a procession in the city in protest against the alleged increase in the Human Rights violations, particularly the killing of a student by security forces at Dalgate on August 9.
Chairman of the breakaway Hurriyat Conference Syed Ali Shah Geelani was on Tuesday put under house arrest, official sources said.
Chairman of the hardline faction of Hurriyat Conference Syed Ali Shah Geelani was placed under house arrest on Wednesday morning, official sources said.\n
The separatist leader was scheduled to attend the funeral prayers of militant commander Manzoor-ul-Islam, who was killed in an encounter with security forces on Wednesday night, his spokesman said.
A joint contingent of police and paramilitary forces laid a cordon around Geelani's Hyderpora house early in the morning.
The work of reconstruction in the flood-ravaged Kashmir could get delayed by at least 6 months due to the mass exodus of migrant labour force in the wake of the natural calamity that hit the valley causing huge damage to infrastructure -- both public as well as private.
'The THJK's agenda is that J&K shall achieve its objectives by pursuing the tenets of Islam, which say that a Muslim has to choose a Muslim as a friend and not a non-Muslim,' says separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani.
The arrest of Mohammed Nayeem Khan, president of the National Front, came a day before a party convention.
The separatists termed the state government's appeal for help to restore normalcy as "childish and illogical".
For the first time in 25 years since the start of militancy in Kashmir, the separatists have not called for a general strike on Martyrs' Day on Monday in view of the fasting month of Ramzan.
Top Kashmiri separatist leaders on Saturday evening joined the iftar party hosted by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the hard-line separatist leader at his uptown residence.
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.
Intense clashes between stone-pelting youth and security forces also rocked Jamia Masjid and adjoining areas in Srinagar shortly after Friday prayers.
Geelani had called for a march on Friday to Tral town in South Kashmir where two youths were killed in an anti-militancy operation on Monday.
"Since the Hyderpora attack of June 24, there have been a series of successful operations both on LoC and in the hinterland area. We have killed 28 terrorists in this period, out of which 18 were eliminated on the LoC and 10 in the hinterland," GOC of Srinagar-based 15 Corps Lt Gen Gurmeet Singh told reporters in Srinagar.
The 45-year-old separatist leader, arrested last week on charges of waging war against the country and sedition, was booked under Public Safety Act on Thursday and shifted to Kotbhalwal Jail in Jammu.
Here's the chronological list of all major terror attacks on security forces in Jammu and Kashmir in the last two decades.
Hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and dozens of Shia mourners were on Thursday detained as police scuttled separatist plan to mark the fourth day ceremony of slain trucker Zahid Bhat and stage a Muharram procession in violation of prohibitory orders.
In a significant move, Kashmiri separatist leaders on Sunday decided to convene a meeting of all stakeholders on Tuesday to decide the future course of the nearly four-month-long shutdown in the Valley.
The terrorists who carried out the deadly attack on army convoy, that killed 8 soldiers and wounded 19 others, had snatched a motorcycle from two students to carry out the strike.
He made it clear that the issue of national security cannot be compromised.
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