House arrest for separatist leader after protest call

Police sources said Geelani, Mirwaiz, Malik, Shabir Ahmad Shah, Nayeem Ahmad Khan and Zaffar Akbar Bhat were placed under house arrest since last evening as a preventive measure to maintain law and order in the Valley.

While Geelani had called for "raising voice against killing of innocent people" during the Friday prayers, Malik had asked people to march to the local office of the United Nations Military Observers Group at Sonawar.

The protests were called against the killing of Hilal Ahmad Dar in army firing at bandipora on Tuesday night.

Geelani has called for a general strike against Dar's killing tomorrow. The strike call has been supported by Kashmir High Court Bar Association also.

While the Army is maintaining that the youth was killed during an encounter, the family of the deceased and local residents deny Dar was involved in militancy and alleged that he was taken into custody before being killed.

For more than a day after the incident, the army remained steadfast that it was not going to inquire into the incident but made a turnaround yesterday after Defence Minister A K Antony ordered a probe.

The state government has ordered a magisterial probe to ascertain the circumstances in which Dar was killed.