SRINAGAR/RANCHI, 10 June — A leading hard-line Indian Kashmiri leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, has been detained under a tough new anti-terrorist law over allegations of funding “terrorist organizations”, police said yesterday.

He has been lodged in a high-security jail in the capital of the eastern state of Jharkhand. Geelani was flown to Ranchi in an aircraft of the Border Security Force and taken to jail amidst tight security, Jharkhand’s Director General of Police R.R. Prasad said.

Police seized Geelani in an overnight raid on his house in Srinagar. Geelani’s Srinagar-based son-in-law Altaf Fantoosh was arrested along with him on charges of channeling funds to insurgent groups in Kashmir.

One of the groups that received the funds was described as the Hizbul Mujahedeen. Geelani’s other son-in-law, Iftikhar Geelani, was also arrested after a raid on his home in New Delhi.

Geelani is a former head of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, an alliance of separatist groups in the Himalayan state. Hurriyat denounced in a statement Geelani’s detention as a move to “derail the ongoing peace process” between India and Pakistan and called a general strike for tomorrow in protest. It added that the separatist chief was in poor health.

No charges have been laid against Geelani following the swoop on his home by police and income tax officials. His arrest came as tensions remained high between India and Pakistan, although hopes for peace rose after a pledge last week by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to halt “cross-border infiltration of terrorists into Jammu and Kashmir”.

“Mr. Geelani’s arrest... is a setback to the process which is being initiated to lessen tension between India and Pakistan and to help resolve the dispute in Jammu and Kashmir,” Hurriyat Chairman Abdul Ghani Bhat told Star Television News. Pakistan also condemned Geelani’s arrest saying it showed India’s disregard for civil liberties. “The arrest of Mr. Geelani once again exhibits the Indian government’s utter disregard for the fundamental rights and liberties of the Kashmiris,” a statement by Pakistan’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said.

Director General of police A.K. Suri said Geelani was detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act over allegations he was “aiding and abetting terrorist activities... (and) funding terrorist organizations in the state”.

Suri told reporters that the arrest of Imtiaz Bazaz, a journalist-turned-insurance agent, under the anti-terrorism law on May 25 had provided the vital link leading to Geelani’s arrest.

“Interrogation of Imtiaz brought out that Syed Salahuddin, the Pakistan-based supreme commander of the Hizb, had been sending money to his commanders in Jammu and Kashmir through a Britain-based doctor and Geelani,” Suri said. He said a joint team of police and income tax officials raided nine premises in the Kashmir Valley early yesterday, including the residence of Asiya Andrabi, the head of the militant women’s organization Dukhtaran-e-Millat.

Searches at Geelani’s residence unearthed 1.1 million rupees in Indian currency and $10,000. Vouchers for jewelry, documents regarding purchase of prime properties in Srinagar, a diamond-studded watch bearing the inscription “From Pakistan government,” lists of several bank accounts, lockers and other “incriminating documents” were recovered.

Police alleged that Britain-based Ayub Thakur, the president of the World Kashmir Freedom Movement, regularly sent money to finance militant groups in Kashmir. They said this matter had been brought to the notice of British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw during his visit to New Delhi May-end.

Meanwhile, five civilians, including a bride, and four activists were killed in Kashmir, police said yesterday.