NEW DELHI (Sputnik) – Indian police arrested Kashmiri separatist leader Masarat Alam on Unlawful Activities Prevention Act charges, an Indian Interior Ministry source told Sputnik on Friday.
On Wednesday, Alam made anti-national slogans at a rally in Jammu And Kashmir State. Following the rally, Indian Interior Minister Rajnath Singh asked Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed to take action against Alam.
On Thursday, Alam and Syed Ali Shah Geelani, another separatist leader, were placed under house arrest. Geelani and Alam were planning a protest march in Tral, Jammu and Kashmir, on Friday.
Indian Jammu and Kashmir has been mired in protests since Monday, after a local young man was killed in a shoot-out with police in a forest.
The Jammu and Kashmir region is the subject of a territorial dispute between India and Pakistan, marring relations between the two countries since the end of British rule in 1947. Following four wars and a number of military conflicts, India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire in 2003. Since then, both sides repeatedly blame each other for violating the truce.
