The pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik went on a day-long hunger strike in Srinagar on Saturday to protest against the arrest of youth, including students, by the state police.

Yasin Malik began his fast on Saturday morning in the Maisuma locality of Srinagar under a tent joined by scores of his supporters and family members of the arrested youth.

 Senior separatist leaders including Shabir Shah, Professor Abdul Gani Bhat and other leaders of the moderate faction of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference joined Malik in his day long fast.

Pro-independence slogans were intermittently raised at the venue by JKLF supporters.

A spokesperson of the front said that Malik's day-long fast was to protest the indiscriminate arrests by the police in capital Srinagar and other towns of students and other youth and 'to express solidarity with the detainees languishing in various jails.'

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has denied that minors were being rounded up and booked under the Public Safety Act.