The Srinagar police on Thursday arrested Kashmir’s chief Muslim cleric and leader of his faction of Hurriyat Conference alliance Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, along with dozens of supporters and senior colleagues on way to the office of United Nations Military Observers Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) here.
The Mirwaiz had planned to present a memorandum to the UNMOGIP accentuating the recent surge in alleged human rights abuses committed by the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir. As the Hurriyat Conference leadership failed to reach the military observers with the memorandum, their aides quickly released through the press. The memorandum demands the perpetrators be arrested and put on trial under the international human rights laws.
Later in the evening the Mirwaiz and others arrested with him earlier were released, officials said.
The Mirwaiz had earlier addressed a seminar on the “deteriorating” human rights organised by his faction of Hurriyat Conference at Raj Bagh here. They have been charged with violating the prohibitory orders in force in the City under Section 144 Crpc. The police also used batons when some of the activists resisted their arrest, witnesses said.