Kashmir hardliner under house arrest: police

SRINAGAR, India (AFP) – A top separatist leader in Indian Kashmir was put under house arrest Friday to prevent protests against Indian rule during weekly prayers, police and officials said.

Police deployed at Syed Ali Geelani's residence in the summer capital Srinagar late on Thursday and he was ordered "not to attempt to break their cordon," his close aide Aiyaz Akbar told reporters.

The ailing Geelani, 79, had been set free by police on Wednesday after serving a three-month jail sentence for organizing protests against a double rape and murder case that has fueled discontent here.

The latest detention came hours after he led scores of Kashmiris in an anti-India demonstration in Srinagar.

"It is a preventive arrest to avoid any law and order problem," a police official told AFP on condition he not be named.

Police and federal paramilitaries were also deployed in Srinagar ahead of the Friday prayers of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Geelani heads the hardline faction of the region's main separatist alliance and he favors Indian Kashmir's merger with Pakistan, which holds part of the disputed region.

Last year, the hardliner led some of the biggest anti-India demonstrations in Kashmir that left more than 50 protesters dead, mostly in police shootings.

Muslim-majority Kashmir has been the scene of a nearly two-decade insurgency against New Delhi's rule that has so far claimed more than 47,000 lives.