Leaders held from hotel were attending Eid Milan in individual capacity: Hurriyat

Srinagar, Jul 10 (PTI) A day after police detained a group of former terrorists from a hotel here and alleged that they were planning to revive the JKLF and the Hurriyat Conference, the separatist amalgam on Monday said it had nothing to with their meeting.

The Hurriyat said some members had gathered at a local hotel in private capacity for an Eid Milan party.

The Hurriyat Conference “wants to make it clear that those who attended this lunch went in their individual capacity, and not as members of Hurriyat. It was not a Hurriyat event nor was Hurriyat leadership aware of it,” the amalgam said in a statement.

After the crackdown on its leaders ahead of the scrapping of Article 370 in August 2019, the Hurriyat has remained away from the limelight.

The Yasin Malik-led Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) was banned in March 2019 for “promoting” secession of the militancy-hit state from the Union of India. The JKLF was involved in the killings of Kashmiri Pandits in 1989 leading to their exodus from the valley, according to officials.

Reacting to the police statement on the detention of several persons from a local hotel, the Hurriyat said they came to know about the meeting through media reports.

“So to attribute motives to Hurriyat in this regard is mere speculation and totally baseless,” it added.

Police on Sunday said it detained a group of former JKLF militants, who were trying to revive separatist politics in Kashmir, from a hotel in the city.

“A search was conducted on basis of credible info about meeting of some ex-trts (terrorists) of JKLF & erstwhile separatists in a hotel in Srinagar. They were brought to Kothibagh PS for verification. Inquiry has started, prima facie it came out that they were planning to revive JKLF & Hurriyat,” the Srinagar Police tweeted.

The police did not elaborate if the persons were arrested or let go after verification.