Srinagar, Aug 12: Police today detained separatist leader Shabir Ahmad Shah and 25 others while they were proceeding towards Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's residence here to lodge their protest against disappearance of two youths from Baramulla district two months ago, official sources said. Shah, president of Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party, was taken into preventive custody alongwith the relatives of the youths, who have been missing Pattan area since June 22, the sources said.

The youths' kin were shouting anti-government, anti-Sayeed and "down with healing touch" slogans when they were taken to police station Kothibagh here, they said. The parents of Mohammad Ashraf Bhat and Showkat Ahmad Pal had threatened to commit self-immolation in front of Chief Minister's residence if the state government failed to give their whereabouts by Monday evening.

They have alleged that Bhat and Pal had disappeared after being taken into custody by security forces.
Bureau Report