Mirwaiz arrested, stopped from going to Shopian

Kashmiri separatist leader Mirwaiz Umer Farooq was Tuesday arrested in Srinagar to restrain him from visiting Jammu and Kashmir's curfew bound Shopian town, police sources said.

Police sources said Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, chairman of the moderate Hurriyat group, was stopped from going to Shopian Tuesday in the afternoon.

"Mirwaiz Umer Farooq has been prevented, along with some other Hurriyat leaders, from proceeding to Shopian town," a police source said here.

Sources close to the Mirwaiz said he was going to Shopian when police arrested him outside the Hurriyat headquarters in Rajbagh area here.

"We do not know where the Mirwaiz has been taken after his arrest by police," said advocate Shahid-ul-Islam, the secretary of the Mirwaiz.

Police sources, however, confirmed the Mirwaiz was taken to his Nigeen residence in the city and asked not to go to Shopian Tuesday.

Meanwhile, curfew continued in Shopian town where five people were killed in paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) firing Sep 7 and Sep 11.

While the four people killed in the two firing incidents have turned out to be unarmed civilians, state police chief Ashok Patel told reporters that they had got in touch with Bihar Police for help in identification of the fifth slain person.

A magisterial probe has been ordered by the government into the two firing incidents, besides the direction for the shifting of the Gagaran village CRPF camp.

Area residents said the personnel of the CRPF posted at the camp killed the five people in cold blood. CRPF officials have denied the allegation.