NEWS

JK cops pull the plug on separatist conference

By Mukhtar Ahmad
April 21, 2010 13:15 IST

The Jammu and Kashmir police on Wednesday foiled a separatists-organised seminar, which was to be tele-addressed by the United Jehad Council chairman Syed Salahuddin and other terrorist leaders based in Muzaffarabad.

Since early Wednesday morning, the police had surrounded the hotel where the seminar was to take place.

Mohammad Ahsan Untoo, the chairman of the 'International Forum for Justice' and organiser of the seminar, was rounded up by the police along with several other separatist leaders from the venue of the seminar.

Untoo had told rediff.com on Tuesday evening that besides senior separatist leaders, including Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq and Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the seminar will also be addressed via phone by Salahuddin, the supreme commander of the Hizbul Mujaheedin, and United Jihad Council general secretary Akil-ur-Rahman.

Sources in Srinagar said Untoo had already received a pre-recorded message from Lashkar-e-Tayiba founder Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, wanted by India in the Mumbai terror attack.

Sources said some other top terrorist leaders were to address the seminar on phone.

This was for the first time that Salahuddin and other top terrorist leaders would have addressed a seminar in Srinagar from Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The participants of the seminar couldn't reach the venue due to heavy police presence, according to the organisers.

"It was a localised event and the government should have allowed it. Heavens wouldn't fall if somebody had addressed the seminar on phone," said a senior separatist leader.

Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar

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