Kashmir prevented from holding hunger protest in New Delhi

Authorities in New Delhi on Friday sent separatist leader Mohammed Yasin Malik to Srinagar in a plane after denying him the permission to hold a hunger protest in the city, officials said. "Malik was Thursday taken into preventive custody by Delhi Police and being denied the permission to stage hunger protest in New Delhi to press for his demand seeking body of 2001 Parliament attack convict Mohammed Afzal Guru," said a police official in Srinagar. "This morning he was flown here and is currently lodged in a police station." The Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) leader, along with his supporters, was to begin his 48-hour-long hunger strike Friday at Jantar Mantar. "He was flown to Srinagar for his presence could have created law and order problem in the city," said a police official on telephone from New Delhi. Malik's hunger protest in February against the hanging of Muhammad Afzal Guru in Islamabad last month raked up controversy after Jamat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Syeed was seen visiting him during the protest. Malik's detention triggered protest demonstrations in Maisuma area on Srinagar. Scores of youth including women took to the streets shouting anti-India slogans. However, policemen in the area baton-charged the protesters and chased them away.