Top Kashmiri separatist leaders share platform after 10 years

Srinagar, Apr 20: Kashmir's senior separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik shared a common public platform on Monday after over a decade as they took part in a condolence rally held for a killed teenager.

Addressing the rally for the recently killed teenager at Narbal village in Jammu and Kashmir's Badgam district on Monday, Geelani, Mirwaiz and Malik alleged that the Indian security forces were "killing Kashmiri youth in a systematic manner". [Jammu and Kashmir Bandh: One dead as Police fires on pro-Masarat protesters in Narbal]

The 17-year-old youngster, Suhail Ahmad Sofi, was killed in police firing during clashes that occurred between stone-pelting protestors and the security forces on Saturday in Narbal village, situated on the Srinagar-Gulmarg road.

Two policemen were later arrested for violating the standard operating procedure (SOP) while handling the mob at the village. "How long will this killing spree continue? I want to ask the Indian government and its puppets in the state," Malik said.

The three senior separatist leaders also visited the family of the slain boy to offer condolences.

Geelani and Mirwaiz had been placed under house arrest in Srinagar on Sunday while Malik sat on a symbolic 30-hour hunger strike against the government's decision to set up composite townships for migrant Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley.

Geelani heads the hardline group of the Hurriyat Conference while Mirwaiz heads its moderate group. Malik is the chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF).

Hurriyat Conference, the local separatist conglomerate, split into hardline and moderate groups in 1995.

Both the Hurriyat groups stand for the state's merger with Pakistan while the JKLF supports the idea of an independent Jammu and Kashmir.

IANS