J&K: Separatist leader Yasin Malik in police custody for calling shutdown

Separatist leader Yasin Malik on Thursday has been taken into police custody for calling shutdown in Jammu and Kashmir. Separatists had called for a shutdown in the valley protesting against the death of civilians.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL), a grouping of separatist leaders, had called for a protest shutdown on Thursday against the murder of senior journalist Shujaat Bukhari and civilian killings in the Kashmir Valley.

Expressing serious concern over the murder of Bukhari, the editor of "Rising Kashmir", the JRL demanded an international probe into it.

Bukhari was shot dead by three motorcycle-borne youths outside his Srinagar office on June 14.

The JRL first announced that the shutdown will be observed on Wednesday but later deferred it to Thursday because of a Hindu festival at Mata Kheer Bhawani shrine in Ganderbal district on Wednesday.