Hurriyat leaders held to foil visit to Afzal Guru's kin

Several leaders of moderate Hurriyat Conference, including its chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, were placed under house arrest by the authorities in Srinagar after the separatist amalgam said it will visit the family of Parliament attack convict Mohammad Afzal Guru.

Besides Mirwaiz, those placed under house arrest include executive member of Hurriyat Aga Syed Hassan Alsafvi Almosvi, Zaffar Akbar Bhat and advisor to the chairman Shahidul Islam, official sources said.

The Mirwaiz had  announced that he, along with other leaders of Hurriyat, would visit Guru's house at Doabgah, Sopore in north Kashmir on Monday. However, apprehending law and order problems the authorities placed him under house arrest. "Mirwaiz has been placed under house arrest," a police spokesman said.

The Hurriyat chairman said that since he was under house arrest, first in Delhi and then here, he couldn't make it to Guru's residence after his execution in Delhi's Tihar Jail on February 9.

Another Hurriyat leader and Jammu and Kashmir People's League Chairman, Mukhtar Ahmad Waza was detained on Sunday and lodged in police station Sadder in south Kashmir's Anantnag district, they said.