Police crack whip against those sticking threatening posters in Valley: IGP

An unspecified number of persons with suspected terror links have been arrested in Kashmir for allegedly threatening local businessman by sticking posters and impeding the restoration of normalcy in the Valley, said police officials on Saturday.

Police have taken note of the incidents of sticking posters to intimidate shopkeepers and a strong action is being taken against those involved, Kashmir Inspector General of Police S P Pani told PTI.

Pani said police were investigating such incidents and it has been established that in certain cases, there was active terror support behind such incidents.

The investigation is on. In some cases, there are mischievous elements the miscreants, while in others, there are active terror modules behind such incidents, he said.

The IGP said several persons have been arrested from different parts of the Valley including Srinagar.

Several of these modules have been busted and some of the people involved in this have been arrested. Those arrested include four-five prominent modules in Sopore, Awantipora and even Srinagar, Pani said.

The Kashmir valley had limped back to a semblance of normalcy over the past few weeks after about three months of protest shutdown over the abrogation of Article 370, but a spate of threatening posters cropping up overnight, warning shopkeepers and public transport operators in the city here and elsewhere triggered fresh shutdown from Wednesday.

Most of the shops, fuel stations and other business establishments in the city and other areas in the valley, meanwhile, stayed shut for the fourth day on Saturday, said officials.

Public transport largely remained off the roads in the city as well as elsewhere in the Valley, they said.

A few auto-rickshaws and inter-district cabs, however, were plying, they added.

Pre-paid mobile phones and all internet services continued to be suspended since August 5, when the Centre announced its decision to abrogate Article 370 of the Constitution and bifurcate Jammu and Kashmir into two Union territories.

Most of the top level and second rung separatist politicians have been taken into preventive custody while mainstream leaders including two former chief ministers -- Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti -- have been either detained or placed under house arrest.

The government has detained former chief minister and sitting Lok Sabha MP from Srinagar Farooq Abdullah under the controversial Public Safety act, a law enacted by his father and National Conference founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah in 1978 when he was the chief minister.