Kashmiri separatists reject security

 Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who heads the hardline faction of the Hurriyat Conference, said he would not allow policemen to guard him as, according to him, the cops were killing the people and committing atrocities on them.

Moulana Showkat Ahmad, president of Jamiat-e-Ahlihadees (JeA), was assassinated in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast outside a mosque here on Saturday.

After the killing, the state government approached senior separatist leaders Geelani, Mohammad Yasin Malik, Shabir Ahmad Shah, Nayeem Ahmad Khan and others and offered to provide them security guards for their protection. All of them rejected the offer.

“In view of the threat to their lives by militants, we want to provide them the security. But they refused. We are trying to persuade them that security for them is important in view of the killing of leaders,” said Abdul Rashid, a police official.

However, government security has is being provided since the early 1990s to Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chairman of the moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference. His father Moulana Mohammad Farooq was killed by unidentified gunmen in 1990. Police said the killers were militants.