Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah said that his government intended to hold the deferred Panchayat elections in the state on non-party basis.
A Delhi court on Thursday ordered registration of FIR against Hurriyat hawk Syed Ali Shah Geelani, writer Arundhati Roy and five others for allegedly making anti-India speeches.
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.
The Delhi High Court issued notice to the city government seeking its response as to why criminal case should not be registered against hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, writer Arundhati Roy and Delhi University professor S A R Geelani for allegedly making anti-India speeches.
"We have seen enough of strikes and curfews for the past four months and now we want to feed our families. We cannot go on forever like this," a vendor, who identified himself only as Khalid, told PTI
The Government decided not to file any case against hardline Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and activist Arundhati Roy for purportedly giving "hate speeches" at a seminar held in Delhi last week.
Booker Prize winning author Arundhati Roy recently received a tremendous amount of criticism for her speech at the Azadi -- The Only Way seminar in New Delhi, where she shared the stage with Hurriyat hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani. In a strongly worded statement, Roy clarifies her stance on the issue.
Terming the remarks made by Hurriyat hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani and writer Arundhati Roy at a seminar in New Delhi as 'most unfortunate', Law Minister M Veerappa Moily on Tuesday said freedom of speech cannot violate patriotic sentiments of the people."Yes, there is freedom of speech, but it can't violate the patriotic sentiments of the people," he said.
Calling for a boycott of the Centre's interlocutors on Jammu and Kashmir, hardline Hurriyat Conference Chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani said they had been appointed as part of a 'dirty trick' to mislead United States President Barack Obama.
Highly-placed sources in the ministry said that an advice from the legal department was received that prima facie a case can be registered against Geelani and others for making statements which are seen as an attempt to instigate secession. The sources said the Delhi Police has been asked to register a case, which they are expected to do soon.
Saturday's shutdown followed the Baramulla march call given by Geelani on Friday over the recent rape and murder of two women in south Kashmir's Shopian town. Authorities had imposed strict restrictions on Friday to foil the proposed separatist march.
Hinting at continuing protests in Kashmir till the visit of United States President Barack Obama to India in November, Hurriyat hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani on Sunday accused the Centre of trying to suppress the 'movement' in the Valley ahead of the US President's arrival.
Hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani evening issued a call for Shopian march and a week-long protest programme against the alleged rape and murder of two women last week.
The hardline Hurriyat Conference on Saturday rejected Centre's eight-point formula to de-escalate the current turmoil in Kashmir terming it as an "eye wash" even as other separatist outfits maintained a studied silence.
Kashmir Valley has been in grip of violent protests since June 11 when a 17-year-old boy was killed after he was hit by a tear smoke shell during clashes at Rajouri Kadal in interior city.
Owaisi said, 'Srinagar is a ghost town. Yeh kya kar diya hai (What have they done)? The people are very angry. It moved us to see that people were searching for milk. We were told that since last three months children were not going to school, medicines or proper food have been in short supply. They said they were being tormented.They can't bear the torture of their youth."
The all-party delegation led by Union Home Minister P Chidambaram will on Tuesday visit Tangmarg, which witnessed incidents of arson recently, hospitals in Srinagar to meet those injured during clashes, and the Hazratbal shrine.
Muslim Majlis leader Asaduddin Owaisi and two others accompanied Yechury when they met Geelani at his residence. Geelani had refused to meet the all-party delegation that is currently in Srinagar
Shops, business and educational institutions in the Kashmir valley remained closed, official sources said.
Hardline faction of Hurriyat Conference headed by Syed Ali Shah Geelani dropped plans to stage protest marches to army and other security forces camps here on September 21.
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.
Hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani today said the ongoing protests could be reviewed and a dialogue with the Centre initiated if it fulfils five preconditions.
Hardline separatist leader Asiya Andrabi was arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir police on Saturday.Andrabi is a trusted lieutenant of separatist Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani. She and fellow separatist leader Masarat Alam have been spearheading the protests in Srinagar.Andrabi, who had been underground for some time, was one of the most wanted leaders in the Valley.Kashmir has witnessed a vicious cycle of protests and civilian deaths in firing by security forces.
Asiya Andrabi, the woman separatist leader who is on the Kashmir police's most wanted list, speaks to Rediff.com's Krishnakumar Padmanabhan in an exclusive interview.
Hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who recently came out against violence in Kashmir, on Saturday rejected the Centre's dialogue offer.
The state police on Friday arrested one of the two activists of the hardline Hurriyat Conference who were allegedly involved in a conspiracy to engineer violence in Kashmir valley by planning the killing of 10 to 15 people during a procession. The police swooped down at a place on Narbal-Magam Road and arrested Shabir Ahmed Wani, district president of the Hurriyat Conference led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chairman of the All Party Hurriyat Conference, has denied news reports that appeared in a leading national paper saying that he did not want travel documents to be issued to rival APHC group chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani when an AHPC delegation visited Pakistan in 2005.
The hard-line separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani on Friday threatened agitation 'in case the annual Amarnath yatra is not restricted to the original 15 day schedule.'
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.
Criticising co-education in schools and colleges, hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani on Thursday said the Jammu and Kashmir government was promoting 'immoral activities' by keeping girls and boys shoulder to shoulder.
Life in Srinagar and other major towns was affected by a shutdown called by the hard-line separatist leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani to coincide with the first death anniversary of a student killed by a tear smoke shell hit in old city last year.
Jammu and Kashmir chief minister, Omar Abdullah has said his government would not curtail the two-month-long annual Amarnath yatra scheduled to begin in June this year.Hard-line separatist leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani has sought curtailment of the yatra period for what he called 'the preservation of ecology in the Kashmir Himalayas'.
Geelani also criticised porous borders, self-governance and other formulas being put forth by the Pakistan President, General Parvez Musharraf, to meet India midway in resolving the Kashmir dispute.
Three persons were injured, two of them with rubber bullets in post Friday prayer protests in north Kashmir's Sopore town.
After the meeting with the Pak PM, separatist leaders admitted that differences persisted.
Ahead of the resumption of Foreign Secretary-level talks between India and Pakistan tomorrow, visiting Pakistani Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir met Geelani for 90 minutes.
Ahead of his talks with his Indian counterpart Nirupama Rao, Pakistan Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir will be meeting leaders of various separatist outfits from Kashmir over the next two days.
The Hurriyat faction led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, supported by the Kashmir high court bar association, the Dukhtaran-e-Millat, traders and several other groups, gave the strike call.
Farooq Abdullah and Syed Ali Shah Geelani on Saturday sparred in public with the former chief minister asking him to give up his "movement of violence" in Jammu and Kashmir and telling him secession can never be accepted.
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