Authorities here have booked Tehreek-e-Hurriyat Chairman Mohammad Ashraf Sehrai under Public Safety Act, reported a local news agency, Global News Service.
The elderly leader was arrested from his residence at Baghaat Barzulla at 5:30 a.m., an unnamed top police officer told GNS.
Mr. Sehrai’s son, Junaid Sehrai, was a Hizb-ul-Mujahideen militant commander and was killed earlier this year. Mr. Ashraf Sehrai is the chairman of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, a constituent of main Hurriyat Conference which was until recently headed by Syed Ali Geelani.
Apart from Mr. Sehrai, about a dozen other members of the Jamaat-e-Islami have been taken into custody, Jammu and Kashmir Police chief Dilbagh Singh said.
The arrest comes less than two weeks after the bombshell resignation of the 90-year-old Geelani as “chairperson for life” of the Hurriyat Conference. (GNS)