SRINAGAR: Indian police yesterday arrested a hard-line Kashmiri separatist for encouraging weeklong protests over the alleged rape and murder of two Muslim women. Syed Ali Geelani, 79, was held after a midnight raid on his house in Srinagar, a police source said, adding that Geelani had been shifted to an undisclosed location.
Anger over the death of a 17-year-old girl and her 22-year-old sister-in-law has effectively shut down much of the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley, including Srinagar, over the past week.
A forensic report has confirmed that the women found dead in south Kashmir’s Shopian town last week had been raped before being murdered, police said yesterday. The police registered a case of gang rape after a Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) report received Saturday evening.
“We have got the FSL report that has confirmed the gang rape of the two women. We have now lodged the FIR and begun investigations,” a senior police officer told Arab News here.
Before his arrest, Geelani, in telephone calls to local reporters, called on Muslims to hold protests today to “express solidarity with the families of the victims.” Other separatists have either been arrested or detained in their homes.
Police yesterday used tear gas and batons against hundreds of women protesting in Srinagar against the two deaths, witnesses said. They were led by Asiya Andrabi, the head of leading women separatist group the Daughters of Faith.
Meanwhile, at least 24 people were feared dead yesterday when a bus they were traveling in skidded off a road and plunged into a fast-flowing river in Kashmir, police said.
The accident occurred in southern Doda district when the driver of the 25-seater bus, which was carrying more than 30 people, lost control of the vehicle and crashed into the Chenab River.
“The bus was fully submerged and the rescue operation was slow due to the high speed of the river, fed by Himalayan glaciers,” a police spokesman said.
— With input from agencies
