Senior separatist leader Mohammad Ashraf Sehrai was arrested in Srinagar Sunday morning and booked under Public Safety Act.
Sehrai, 76, already under house arrest, was tipped to be the new leader of the Hurriyat Conference after Syed Ali Shah Geelani resigned last month. Officials said that Sehrai has been booked under the stringent PSA and will likely be lodged in a Jammu jail. The police have said that some members of the Jamaat Islami were also arrested as part of a fresh crackdown on separatists in the Kashmir Valley.
In the days following the abrogation of the special constitutional position of Jammu and Kashmir on August 5, 2019, a large number of separatists and political leaders were jailed. However, Geelani, Sehrai and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq were put under house arrest.
Almost the entire mainstream leadership, including three former chief ministers – Omar Abdullah, Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti – were also arrested on August 5.