Geelani placed under house arrest in Sinagar

The leader of the hardline faction of the Hurriyat, Syed Ali Shah Geelani was placed under house arrest here on Sunday.

Geelani was placed under house arrest shortly before attempting to leave his residence to address a seminar in Srinagar.

The Centre has spent the past week detaining Kashmiri separatist leaders after the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi invited them to attend a reception that was to be held in honour of Pakistan's National Security Advisor Sartaj Aziz on Sunday evening.

On Saturday, two Kashmiri separatist leaders Shabbir Ahmed and Bilal Lone were taken into preventive custody on charges of attempting to disturb the peace and confined to their respective residences in the national capital.

The house arrest of Geelani cmes a day after Pakistan cancelled the NSA-level talks following an exchange of verbal volleys with the Indian Government over what would constitute the agenda for the talks.

Pakistan insisted that the Kashmir issue must be taken up at the meeting that was scheduled for August 23 and 24, while India insisted that the discussions must remain focused on the issue of terror and violence as agreed upon by the prime ministers of the two countries during their meeting on the sidelines of the SCO Summit in Ufa, Russia.