J&K separatists take to cycles

In a novel way to press for their demands, the activists of the moderate Hurriyat Conference on Tuesday tried to take out a cycle rally to the office of the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan in Srinagar.

However, they were stopped and arrested on way.

The activists of the Jammu and Kashmir Salvation Movement, a part of the Mirwaiz Umar Farooq-led moderate Hurriyat Conference, gathered at the Press Enclave in Srinagar on Tuesday morning to proceed to the UNMOGIP office for submitting a memorandum to the United Nations Secretary General.

However, as the JKSM activists, led by Chairman Zaffar Akbar Bhat, approached the UNMOGIP office, police stopped them at the busy Regal Chowk. They were then detained.

As Abdul Rasheed, a passerby put it, the JKSM activists might have drawn inspiration from the mashaal (torch) rally of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front as part of its safar-e-azadi (journey to freedom).

The march, led by JKLF chairman Yasin Malik, began from Kokernag in Ananatnag district on May 20

and moved across the nook and corner of the Kashmir valley to culminate at Soura near Srinagar on Monday night.

In the memorandum, Bhat demanded release of all political detainees from different jails of the country besides repealing the controversial Armed Forces (Special) Powers Act.

He also called for stopping 'unnecessary' frisking, crackdowns and identification parades in the Kashmir valley. Bhat asked the government to clear all doubts in the minds of the families of disappeared persons, as they have been waiting for quite a long time to know the whereabouts of their kin.

He further demanded withdrawal of security forces from busy market places in the entire state.

The JKSM sought the intervention of the UN in compelling India to take these steps and thus avoid 'war' and save Asia and its growing economy from 'catastrophe.'