As the news about his arrest spread, shopkeepers put down shutters in Rajouri Kadal locality,

Mirwaiz, who heads the moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference, said he had planned to visit Shopian, to help people who are under the seige of Indian occupation from past 10 days.

But the police forced him into an official van just after he stepped out of his office at Rajbagh in Srinagar.

The pro-freedom leader has given the government a deadline of 24 hours to lift the curfew in Shopian. “Or else I will call upon the entire valley to march towards Shopian,” he told reporters before he was taken away.

He was lodged at Police Station Rajbagh till last reports came in