Srinagar, Oct 5 (IANS) Muhammad Yasin Malik, chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), was arrested and indefinite curfew imposed Sunday across the Kashmir Valley ahead of the proposed separatist march Monday to city centre Lal Chowk.
'Malik was arrested from his Maisuma residence in the city late Saturday night,' JKLF sources said here.
Malik had visited Lal Chowk Saturday along with half a dozen supporters to 'give final touches to the proposed march,' the sources said.
Vehicles with loudspeakers were seen in all 10 districts of the Valley at the crack of dawn, announcing that curfew was being imposed and that people should remain indoors.
'Those defying curfew restrictions would be dealt with sternly,' the announcement -ahead of the march to Lal Chowk called for Monday by the hardline and moderate factions of the Hurriyat - said.
'Restrictions under Section 144 of the CrPc (Criminal Procedure Code) would remain in force till further orders throughout the Valley from dawn today,' Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police Kuldeep Khoda told IANS.
An assembly of five or more people is deemed as unlawful under the orders.
Meanwhile, senior hardline separatist leader and chairman of the breakaway Hurriyat group Syed Ali Geelani, who complained of severe chest pain Saturday evening, was shifted to the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), the state's premier medical facility, on the advice of doctors attending on him.
The joint co-ordination committee of the hardline and moderate factions of the Hurriyat had Friday called for 'a massive public march to Lal Chowk on Oct 6'.
The committee had said that the march 'would remain totally peaceful and if the authorities imposed curfew, people would try and defy it without resorting to violence or raising any provocative slogans'.
Authorities have made elaborate security arrangements with police and paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel deployed in all 10 districts of the Valley.
All roads, lanes and bylanes leading to city centre Lal Chowk have been sealed to prevent the entry of separatist leaders. All entry points into summer capital Srinagar have also been sealed.
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