Kashmir unrest: JKLF chairman, seven others taken into custody

Eight JKLF leaders including its chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik were taken into preventive custody today in Baramulla district of north Kashmir, official sources said.

Malik was leading a party delegation to Palhallan, one of the areas worst-hit by the ongoing unrest, when he and seven of his senior party colleagues, including the vice-chairman of the outfit Bashir Ahmad Bhat, were detained by police on the outskirts of the village, 30km from Srinagar, fearing law and order problem, the sources said.

All of them were lodged at police station Mirgund, they said.

Condemning the arrest of the party leaders, a JKLF spokesperson said they were visiting Palhallan to meet the families affected by the ongoing unrest.

"The arrest of the leaders is undemocratic. By such measures, the government wanted to put a veil on the excesses committed by security forces in the area," he said.