Yasin Malik among nine detained

Srinagar: Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Yasin Malik and eight other members of the separatist group were detained here on Friday after they led a protest against the killing of a youth in Boniyar village of Baramulla earlier this week.

Malik and eight other JKLF members, including Showkat Ahmad Bakshi, were detained when they attempted to march towards the city-centre Lal Chowk from Maisuma neighbourhood.

"Even though people here are now protesting peacefully, the temperament of security forces has become such that they are trigger-happy," he told reporters before he was detained.

Malik also condemned the "political statements" issued by Army generals and termed its Sadbhavna operations as "institutional corruption".

"Is India a democratic country or has it become a banana republic? Now, Army generals are issuing political statements.

The political leadership gives one statement on Kashmir and Army Generals next day give another statement to contradict it," Malik claimed.

A large posse of policemen prevented the group from marching towards Lal Chowk after which Malik and others were detained and taken to a nearby police station.

Malik was protesting against the killing of Altaf Ahmad Sood, a student, who was killed when CISF personnel fired on protesters in north Kashmir's Boniyar village on Monday.

The JKLF leader said the protest is also to save the peaceful struggle of Kashmiris.