India police hold Kashmiri leader under terror law

SRINAGAR, India - A leading hardline Indian Kashmiri separatist leader has been detained under a tough new anti-terrorism law over allegations of funding "terrorist organisations", police said on Sunday.

Police seized Syed Ali Shah Geelani in a raid on his house in Srinagar, summer capital of the Himalayan state of Jammu and Kashmir which is at the root of a standoff between nuclear-capable India and Pakistan that has brought the countries close to war.

Geelani has not been charged. His arrest overnight came as tensions remained high between the nations, although hopes for peace were rising after a pledge by Pakistan to halt separatist incursions into Indian Kashmir.

Geelani is a former chairman of the All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference, an alliance of separatist groups in Jammu and Kashmir where a revolt against Indian rule has raged for more than a dozen years.

Police director-general A.K. Suri said Geelani was detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act over allegations he was "aiding and abetting terrorist activities ... (and) funding terrorist organisations in the state". He has been sent to a jail in Ranchi in the eastern state of Jharkhand.

Three other activists were also detained under the act, passed in March, which gives police broad powers of arrest and allows suspects to be held for 30 days without appearing in court.

Suri said the arrests followed the discovery by police and income tax officials of more than US$30,000 ($NZ61,779) in a house.

In March, police detained another separatist leader, Yasin Malik, under the act after holding a women who they alleged was carrying thousands of dollars for the separatist movement. Malik, who remains in detention, has denied has any links with the women.

Nearly a dozen militant groups are battling New Delhi's rule in India's only Muslim-majority state in a revolt that has claimed more than 33,000 lives.

- REUTERS

Feature: The Kashmir conflict