separatist-leader-yasin-malik-sits-on-hunger-strike-protests-against-atrocities

Separatist leader Yasin Malik sits on hunger strike, protests against atrocities

Srinagar, Dec 24 (ANI): Separatist leader Yasin Malik on Wednesday continued his hunger strike in Srinagar against what he alleged police highhandedness. Malik, chief of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), has been demanding the release of several youth detained by police during state elections. While a record 65 percent voted in five-phase elections, many tried to boycott the polls by staging protests and hurling stones at security personnel, forcing the latter to make arrests. India has long struggled to bring Kashmiris into the democratic mainstream and elections in the past have been marred by violence and low turn-out. Political leaders in Kashmir blame the federal government for failing to find a political solution as violence ebbed in the past few years. Dec 24, 2014