Masarat Alam arrested ahead of rally in Tral

Jammu and Kashmir authorities arrested hardline separatist leader Masarat Alam ahead of a rally in south Kashmir’s Tral, television channels reported on Friday.

Alam and top separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani were earlier placed under house arrest on Thursday, a day after police filed a case under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act against them for allegedly raising anti-national slogans during a rally in Srinagar.

Alam was leading the supporters of Geelani during the Srinagar procession in which Pakistan flags were displayed and pro-freedom and pro-Pakistan slogans were raised.

“Nothing will change, I expected nothing to,” Alam told CNN-IBN before his arrest.

Demands were being raised by the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress for Alam’s detention and they turned sharper after the Srinagar rally.

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Geelani had planned the Friday rally in Tral, where a civilian was killed in firing by the security forces three days ago, the reports said.

“Let them (government) do whatever they want to. We will carry on with what we are doing. My message to them is that they should follow the Hurriyat programme,” Alam said after his house arrest.

The state government had earlier denied permission for the Friday congregation.

The move came after Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed said the law would take its own course when asked how Alam would be reined in following his participation in the ‘anti-India’ rally in Srinagar.

There is widespread criticism against the PDP-BJP state government for releasing Alam, a political prisoner, from the Baramulla prison.

Alam is the chairman of Muslim League, a constituent of hardline Hurriyat Conference led by Geelani and is widely seen as the latter’s heir apparent.

He had been convicted for organising anti-India protests resulting in the death of 112 people in stone pelting across the Valley in 2010.