Srinagar, May 26: At least 25 Hurriyat Conference activists, including acting chairman of People's League Bashir Ahmad Tota and JKLF vice-chairman Javid Ahmad Mir, were today taken into preventive custody for staging a protest march here in violation of prohibitory orders, official sources said.
The march was organised by the People's League to demand release of its leader and Hurriyat executive member Sheikh Abdul Aziz and other detainees languishing in different jails within and outside the state, the sources said. The activists carrying placards and raising pro-freedom slogans, took off from the busy Lal Chowk area where they were joined in by activists of JKLF and Kashmir Khawateen Markez, both constituents of Hurriyat Conference, the sources said. Calling for immediate release of Aziz and other detainees and an end to alleged custodial killings, the activists were asked to disperse but when they resisted they were arrested on reaching exchange road and taken to Kothibagh police station. Four women activists of KKM were also briefly detained, the sources added.

Bureau Report