Hurriyat calls for shutdown over leaders' arrest

Calling the Monday arrest of seven of its leaders "revengeful and arbitrary", the Hurriyat leadership has called for a shutdown in the Kashmir Valley on Tuesday.

Hurriyat leaders Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik gave the call for a 'Kashmir Bandh' to condemn what they called were the "revengeful, arbitrary, and illegal arrests".

Nayeem Khan, Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bitta Karate, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Shahid-ul-Islam, Ayaz Akbar, Peer Saifullah and Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal were arrested by the National Investigation Agency on charges of receiving funds from Pakistan to sponsor terrorist activities and stone-pelting in the Valley.

While six separatist leaders were arrested in Srinagar, Bitta Karate was arrested in Delhi.

Nayeem Khan and Ayaz Akbar were taken to Delhi from Srinagar on a Monday afternoon flight by NIA while the other arrested men would be flown in the evening.

--IANS

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