Alam was taken into custody Monday evening in a suburb in Srinagar, said K. Rajendra, a top police officer.

Rajendra called the arrest a “significant success” for the government forces battling to control the civil unrest.

“Unlike other separatists, he was leading these protests from the underground,” Rajendra said.

Alam shot to prominence in June following the launch of Quit Kashmir movement.

He had evaded security forces for over four months during which he called for weekly protests in the absence of Geelani, who was under detention.

Since June, Indian Kashmir has been rocked by violent anti-government protests and subsequent crackdowns by government forces that have killed at least 111 people, mostly teenage boys and young men.

Anti-India sentiment runs deep in Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan region divided between India and Pakistan and claimed by both. Protesters reject Indian rule and want independence or a merger with Pakistan.

While an armed uprising that began in 1989 has been largely suppressed by Indian forces, Kashmiris have taken to the streets in increasingly tense demonstrations over the past three summers, throwing rocks at police and chanting separatist slogans in an effort to pressure India to leave.

Alam had been one of the front-line activists who rallied the protesters in the summer of 2008, when Muslim residents demonstrated against the transfer of 100 acres of land to a Hindu temple in the Kashmir Himalayas.

He was arrested after those protests were put down and released after 22 months in jail this May.

When anti-India protests erupted this June, and political activists and protesters began to be arrested, Alam went into hiding and was widely credited with again directing the protesters.

— With input from agencies