Mirwaiz ‘held’, may be released soon

Kashmir’s chief Muslim cleric Mirwaiz Umar Faro-oq was on Thursday eveni-ng arrested by the police from his residence. Family sources said that a police party arrived at the Mirw-aiz’s residence at Nigeen here and took him along.

The Mirwaiz, who is among three key separatist leaders who formed an “issue-based” loose alliance recently which is issuing protest calendars ever since Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani’s killing on July 8 and set off a new wave of protests and violence in Kashmir, was scheduled to address a gathering in Srinagar’s Jamia Masjid on the telephone after the Magrib namaz, or evening prayers.

Police sources said that he has only been “detained”, taken to the Nigeen police station here and may be released soon.

The alliance, which also has Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Muhammad Yasin Malik, had earlier asked people to march on Srinagar’s Eidgah grounds for an “aazadi” rally on Friday.

“Join aazadi march to Eidgah, Srinagar, move from every mohalla, village, locality, tehsil and district towards the venue, offer Friday prayers there, play Islamic and aazadi anthems in masajid,” a statement issued by it here on Wednesday had said.

The Mirwaiz like Mr. Geelani and several other separatist leaders have remained under house arrest for quite some time now whereas Mr. Malik is among over a dozen key separatists who have been incarcerated.