Separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani arrested in Srinagar

Separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani was arrested, put under house arrest and has been prevented from taking out a march to the UN office in the state capital.

Earlier in the day, a bystander, Shafiq Ahmad Sheikh, was hit by a stone when a group of young men started throwing stones at a bus in Batmaloo in central Srinagar, police said. He was taken to a hospital where he died, said police.

The protestors were indulging in stone pelting to enforce closure of shops in the locality to protest precautionary measures taken by the authorities to prevent the march planned by the hardline Hurriyat Conference leader.

Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah blamed Geelani, who heads the hardline faction of Hurriyat Conference, for Sheikh’s death.

“Any right-thinking person would condemn this death unequivocally. This is an unnecessary death brought about by unnecessary timetable of protests announced Geelani. He is singularly responsible for this death today,” Abdullah told CNN-IBN.

“It is only the result of Geelani’s Friday calendar of protests that he has announced that this innocent has died. If he (Geelani) he had not announced these protests I can assure you that not stone pelting would have taken place,” said Abdullah.