JKLF Chief Yasin Malik Detained

While on his way to Kupwara in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Muhammad Yasin Malik was on Monday detained by the police, reported IANS.

“Yasin Malik was detained at Mirgund (Pattan) along with some of his associates today (Monday),” a police officer was quoted as saying in Srinagar.

While he was detained, Malik was going to Devar Lolab village in Kupwara district to call on the family of 70-year-old Habibullah Khan who was killed on April 14 by the army claiming him to be a separatist militant.

Later, when Khan’s son Raj Mohammad came forward to claim his body, he was found to be a beggar. His body was exhumed and handed over to the family by authorities on Saturday.

Talking to reporters in Srinagar on Sunday, Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah said that Chief Minister Omar Abdullah would take up the issue with the army chief, General VK Singh.

Army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel JS Brar had on Saturday said that the slain man could have been used by the separatist guerrillas as a human shield or as a guide when he was killed in Rainawari forest area of Kupwara.

Police in Kupwara have registered a case.

(Based on internet reports)