Tension is mounting in Srinagar ahead of the death anniversary of Tufail Ahmed Mattoo, a 17-year-old student killed in police action here on June 11, 2010. The incident had set off widespread civil unrest in Kashmir Valley in which more than 110 people died.
Hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani who has called for a Kashmir-wide general strike on Saturday to commemorate those slain during the summer 2010 unrest has been placed under house arrest whereas several of his aides and Hurriyat Conference faction activists have been taken into preventive custody. The octogenarian leader has also announced that he will join a memorial service being held at Srinagar Idgah “martyrs’ ceremony” while an all-religion committee set up in the Sayeda Kadal neighbourhood on the initiative of Tufail’s father plans to erect a cenotaph in the city’s Rajwari Kadal area where a police teargas canister broke his scull resulting into his death.
Another senior separatist leader Syed Shabir Ahmed Shah was along with three of his party men arrested by the police on way to south-western town of Pakherpora where he had to address a Friday congregation. However, Kashmir’s chief Muslim cleric and chairman of his faction of Hurriyat Conference, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who was placed under house arrest on three previous occasions was allowed o relocate to Srinagar’s Grand Mosque to deliver Friday sermon and pray. Official sources said that a security clampdown in parts of Srinagar which might include imposition of dawn to dusk in some localities is under serious consideration.