Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party President Shabbir Ahmed Shah and 25 other Kashmir liberation leaders and activists were arrested at Pampore in Indian Occupied Kashmir on Tuesday while on their way to Pulwama town. According to Kashmir Media Service, they intended to condole for the death of those who were killed in Monday's bomb explosion in Pulwama. The arrested included Nisar Hussain Rather, Shaukat Ahmad Bakhshi, Mushtaq-ul-Islam and Mohammad Shafi Khan, besides three women.
Protest strike marked by demonstrations was observed across the Occupied Kashmir to mourn the killings following massive bomb blast. People took to the streets raising anti-India and pro-liberation slogans in Pulwama and various parts of Srinagar City.
Kashmiri leaders Syed Ali Gilani, Agha Syed Hassan Al-Moosvi Neyeem Ahmad Khan, Firdous Ahmad Shah, Mohammad Saleem Zargar, Mussarrat Alam Butt, Maulvi Bashir Ahmed and Nazir Ahmad Payami addressed a large gathering at Pulwama Chowk. They said the blast was handiwork of Indian intelligence agencies to defame liberation movement of Kashmiris.
Spokesman of the High Court Bar Association in a statement in Srinagar on Tuesday sought an impartial probe into the deadly blast. Kashmiri organisations including JKLF and Democratic Freedom Party, in their separate statements, emphasised that Indian agencies were held bent to create a wedge between general masses and liberation movement by masterminding such incidents. However, they added, India's nefarious designs were bound to fail.