NEW DELHI: An Indian court ordered Tuesday that seven Kashmiri activists be held in police custody for allegedly funding militant groups and stoking unrest in the disputed Himalayan region.
Federal agents swooped on the members of the ‘Hurriyat’ movement in raids across New Delhi and Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar on Monday.
The National Investigation Agency alleges the accused received money from Pakistan and funnelled it to militant groups agitating against Indian occupation in the region.
The valley has been reeling from street violence since the killing of a popular Kashmiri leader by Indian forces last July. “We require time to question them for their role in violence,” Alok Mittal, a spokesman for the federal agency, told AFP.
A Delhi court on Tuesday remanded them in police custody for 10 days, the Press Trust of India reported.
Police allege the separatists used the cash to ‘wage war against India’ by organising street rebellions against troops, burning schools and damaging public property.
Those arrested include the son-in-law of top leader Syed Ali Geelani.
The Hurriyat – an amalgam of political and religious parties fighting for Kashmir’s independence – said the arrests were ‘revengeful, arbitrary and illegal’ and called for mass strikes Tuesday. Geelani, as well as another top Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, were put under house arrest in Srinagar and other parts of the city were under curfew. More than 100 protesters, mostly young men, have been killed since last year in clashes between troops and police and Kashmiris demanding independence from India.
Published in Daily Times, July 26th , 2017.
