J&K: 6 APHC members arrested

Six activists of hard-line separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference were on Thursday arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir police during a press conference at a local hotel in Srinagar.

It must be recalled that the state police had lodged an FIR against senior separatist leader and chairman of the breakaway group of APHC, Syed Ali Shah Geelani and six of his close aides in connection with anti-national slogan shouting at the hardline APHC rally in Srinagar last Sunday.

"The police on Thursday detained our six activists including Ghulam Nabi Sumji, acting chairman of the APHC, Firdous Shah, Masarat Alam Bhat, Mohammad Shafi Lone, Gulzar Ahmad and Mohammad Yasin," a spokesman of the Geelani led APHC said.

A police spokesman in Srinagar confirmed that the six activists had been arrested in connection with the FIR lodged last Sunday in police station Safakadal of downtown city.

The rally and the slogan shouting came a day before the third Kashmir roundtable chaired by the Prime Minister in New Delhi on Tuesday.

The BJP has demanded arrest of the hard-line APHC leader Geelani and blamed the government for being soft to separatist.