An amalgam of various religious organisations has called for a shutdown on Tuesday to protest against the anti-Islam film made by an American filmmaker. Hard-line separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and the pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front have lent their support to the strike call.
Chiefs of both factions of Hurriyat Conference -- Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq -- were on Saturday placed under house arrest in the national capital as a preventive measure following the hanging of Afzal Guru in the Parliament attack case.
A photo of Junaid Ashraf holding an AK 47 assault rifle and wearing an armour vest went viral on social media on Saturday.
Hardline Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani on Thursday threatened to launch an agitation after Eid against the plans to construct a road to Amarnath shrine in south Kashmir.
The separatist had applied for a passport to allow him to visit his ailing daughter in Saudi Arabia.
Stone-pelting broke out in Baramulla town of north Kashmir soon after hardline Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani on Friday addressed a gathering there, police said.
Curfew was on Saturday lifted from Kashmir Valley, a week after it was imposed following hanging of Parliament attack convict Mohammad Afzal Guru. "Curfew has been lifted from all the ten districts in the Valley," a police spokesman said.
Chairman of All Parties Hurriyat Conference Syed Ali Shah Geelani on Saturday condemned the hanging of Afzal Guru, saying the latter was not involved in the 2001 Parliament attack and was also not given a chance to defend himself in connection with this case. Geelani said Guru's hanging at the Tihar Jail this morning is a matter of sorrow and pain for the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
A separatist sponsored shutdown affected normal life in Srinagar and other towns Saturday.
"It (JeI's statement) is a very valid thing. Islam seeks such a society where human values are respected, where modesty is upheld, where semi-naked dresses are not worn, where alcohol and drugs are not promoted and where women and men do not mix," Geelani said.
The Crime Branch told Metropolitan Magistrate Navita Kumari Bagha that on orders from the police headquarters, the case has been transferred to it from the Tilak Marg police station, where it was registered in November 2010 on court orders.
Normal life was affected in Srinagar and others parts of the Valley by a protest shutdown on Monday, which was called by separatist leaders to protest a recent ruling by the Jammu and Kashmir high court -- that life imprisonment meant incarceration for the remainder of the convict's life, not only the period of 14 years that is usually observed in the rest of India.
Rubbishing the interlocutors' report on Kashmir, hardline Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani on Friday said their boycott by separatists has been vindicated as the document is like a "dead mouse" found after digging a mountain.
Moderate Hurriyat leaders Abdul Gani Bhat and Lone brothers -- Sajjad and Bilal, who have been critical of terrorists recently, stayed away from Pakistan National Day celebrations where People's Democratic Party leader Maulvi Ifthikhar Hussain Ansari was a surprise guest. Both moderate and hard-line factions of the Hurriyat Conference were represented by their chairmen Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Syed Ali Shah Geelani respectively at the Pakistan Day celebrations.
The separatist Hurriyat Conference is finished in Jammu and Kashmir but attempts are being made to keep it alive from Pakistan, Director General of Police Dilbag Singh said on Monday, adding that the militancy in the region is "on crutches".
Hard-line Hurriyat Conference chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani on Monday rejected the Truth and Reconciliation Commission proposed by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and demanded a United Nations-appointed factfinding mission to probe the unmarked graves in Jammu and Kashmir. "We vehemently reject the Truth and Reconciliation Commission as we do not expect justice from the system which is perpetuating human rights violations in the state," Geelani said.
The Delhi police on Wednesday recorded the statement of pro-Pakistan hardliner Hurriyat Chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani in connection with the allegations that he had given a recommendation letter to arrested Lashkar-e-Tayiba militant Athesham Malik for getting a Pakistani visa.
Charges were framed on Saturday against a close aide of hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and three others, arrested for allegedly running hawala racket to fund banned terrorist outfit Hizbul Mujahideen in Kashmir Valley, by a Delhi court, paving the way for their trial.
The first all-girl band of Kashmir on Monday decided to call it quits in the wake of a fatwa issued by Grand Mufti terming singing as un-islamic, a remark that came under all round attack.
A shutdown called by hardline separatist Hurriyat Conference to protest against the Jammu and Kashmir government's decision to shift prison inmates from the Valley to outside jails affected normal life in Srinagar on Tuesday.
Kashmiri protestors demonstrated outside a five-star hotel in Delhi where separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani was speaking at the India Today Conclave on Saturday.
In this exclusive interview with rediff.com, Geelani outlines why he rejected Abdullah's move. Geelani terms the relative calm in the valley this year as 'the silence of the graves', saying that the sentiments of the Kashmiri people are being suppressed with force.
Normal life in the Kashmir Valley was severely affected due to a strike call given by hardline Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani against the continued arrests of youths.
In its third summons, issued last week, the NIA promised him security.
Schools, shops, business establishments, private offices and banks remained closed in most pasts of the Valley due to the strike, officials said.
Ahead of Indo-Pak foreign ministers meet in New Delhi on Wednesday, Pakistan Minister Hina Rabbani Khar on Tuesday met both the Hurriyat Conference factions during which the separatists sought Islamabad's intervention for release of Ghulam Nabi Fai arrested in US for being a front of Inter Services Intelligence.
Separatist outfits in Kashmir have reacted strongly to the arrest of Ghulam Nabi Fai, the executive director of the Kashmir American Council based in Washington, by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Terming the arrest of Dr Fai as "unjustified", hard-line separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani said, "The arrest has been made at the behest of the government of India. It is the result of a deep rooted conspiracy to weaken the ongoing movement in Kashmir."
Kashmiri separatist groups have welcomed United States President Barack Obama's statement that Jammu and Kashmir was 'a longstanding dispute between India and Pakistan which the two neighbours must resolve'.
A four member panel of Kashmir Committee on Thursday met the hard-line separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani at his uptown residence in Srinagar and had two hour-long deliberations with him.
Despite Home Minister P Chidambaram's assurance that action will be taken against Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani's alleged secessionist speech in New Delhi last week, the city police is yet to file a complaint against the separatist leader."We are studying the speech delivered by Geelani. Once that is done, a report will be sent to the home minister for his approval," Delhi police spokesperson Rajan Bhagat said.
Apprehending breach of peace, authorities have barred chairman of hardline Hurriyat faction Syed Ali Shah Geelani from visiting Shopian town in south Kashmir on Friday to hold a public rally
Funeral prayers in absentia were offered for slain Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in various mosques in Jammu and Kashmir capital Srinagar and other towns after the congregational Friday prayers.
As curfew and severe restrictions continue to hinder public movement in Kashmir, internet has emerged as the new choice of communication with separatist and militant leaders who are using the medium for spreading their message.
The city police on Tuesday told a Delhi court that it was still probing the sedition case against hardline Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, writer Arundhati Roy and four others for making alleged anti-India speeches last year.
Hard-line separatist leader and All Parties Hurriyat Conference chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani was detained by the police in Srinagar on Wednesday. A group of policemen led by senior officers reached his uptown Hyderpora residence on Wednesday afternoon and took the octogenarian separatist leader into custody.Geelani, who has been spearheading the violent protests that have rocked the valley in the last few months, was shifted to the nearby police station at Humhama.
Apprehending law and order problem in Anantnag where a youth was allegedly killed in firing by security forces on August 30, curfew remained in force in the town, official sources said.
Authorities in Jammu and Kashmir imposed curfew in most parts of the Valley on Saturday, following which, all the shops closed down and streets were left deserted.
Hearing of the sedition case against hardline Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, writer Arundhati Roy and four others for their alleged anti-India speeches was preponed by a fortnight by a Delhi court. The court, which earlier had fixed the matter for hearing on May 5, today advanced it to April 19 following a plea for early hearing by complainant Sushil Pandit.
The hard-line Hurriyat Conference on Tuesday said it was willing to consider the offer of talks by Centre-appointed interlocutors, but the Delhi police's restriction orders on Syed Ali Shah Geelani had put a spanner in this direction."Hurriyat had decided to discuss the invitation of the Centre's interlocutors after the return of Geelani from Delhi, but his detention has delayed the meeting, where a decision would have been taken on the issue," Hurriyat spokesman said.
Normal life in Kashmir was disrupted on Tuesday following a strike call given by the hardline separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference against the curbs imposed on its chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani in New Delhi, which barred him from leaving the capital.
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