Srinagar: 10 youths arrested under UAPA for Malik protest

Parts of the city observed a shutdown for the second consecutive day but police allegedly coerced some shopkeepers to open their establishments

TT Special Correspondent   |   Srinagar   |   27.05.22  : Security forces carried out multiple overnight raids and arrested 10 youths under anti-terror law UAPA in Srinagar for raising slogans and hurling stones during protests against the life imprisonment handed to separatist leader Mohammad Yasin Malik.

Parts of Srinagar city observed a shutdown for the second consecutive day but police allegedly coerced some shopkeepers to open their establishments.

The security establishment has been following a zero-tolerance policy on all forms of protest since the 2019 scrapping of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status.

JKLF chief Malik was sentenced to life imprisonment by an NIA court in Delhi on Wednesday in a terror-funding case.

A small protest had broken out on Wednesday in Srinagar’s Maisuma locality, Malik’s birthplace, against his sentencing. Some protesters threw stones, prompting the forces to use tear-gas shells.

A police spokesman said 10 accused persons who were involved in “yesterday’s hooliganism, rioting, anti-national sloganeering and stone-pelting” outside Malik’s home were arrested overnight.

“Regarding the incident, a case vide FIR No. 10/2022 under relevant sections of the law was registered at Maisuma police station and an investigation was initiated,” he said.

“Accordingly, midnight raids were conducted at many places that led to the arrest of 10 accused persons, including the key accused involved in the commission of crime,” he added.

The police said no attempt of “creating a law-and-order situation in the Valley” would be tolerated and “all mischievous attempts of provoking a law-and-order situation by vested interests will be treated with full force of law”.

A police officer said an FIR was registered under Section 13 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and sections of the IPC.

The arrested persons are being booked under the Public Safety Act and will be lodged in jails outside Jammu and Kashmir, an officer said.