JKLF vice chairman Bashir Ahmad Bhat along with other leaders of the outfit was today taken into preventive custody after they took out a march here to protest against the recent death of students in south Kashmir and arrests of former Delhi University professor S A R Geelani and JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar.
The Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) activists were detained at Abi Guzar locality in the heart of the city, shortly after they organised 'Gaiyebana Nimaz-e-Jinazah' (funeral prayers in absentia) for Zikra Maqbool, widow of JKLF founder Mohammad Maqbool Bhat, who died in Pakistan yesterday.
The JKLF founder was hanged in Delhi's Tihar jail on February 11, 1984.
JKLF headed by Mohammad Yasin Malik had announced a sit-in at Lal Chowk this afternoon to lodge its protest against the killing of two students allegedly in firing by security forces on protesters after an encounter in Pulwama district on Sunday.
Malik could not attend the protest as he was undergoing treatment for a medical condition at a hospital under police custody.
"JKLF is raising its voice against the unabated killings in Kashmir. This killing spree cannot be tolerated silently and Kashmiris will resist this genocide with passion and valour," the JKLF vice-chairman said before leading the protest march.
Hundreds of people participated in funeral prayers attended among others by Islamic Students League chief Shakil Ahmad Bakhshi and representatives of various other separatist groups, including both factions of Hurriyat Conference.
