Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin was arrested in Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan occupied Kashmir, along with seven other top Kashmiri militant leaders during a demonstration, reports reaching Srinagar said. Salahuddin, who is also the chairman of the United Jehad Council (an amalgam of 13 militant outfits), was arrested while he was demonstrating against the Kashmir policy of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, the reports said. Others arrested by the authorities in PoK were Ghulam Rasool Shah alias General Abdullah of Jamait-ul-Mujahideen, Mufti Rauf of Jaish-e-Mohammed, Zaki-ur-Rehman of Lashker-e-Tayiba, Jamil-ul-Rehman of Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen and Mushtaq Zargar alias Latram, the reports said. Zargar was one of the three militants released by India in exchange for passengers of an Indian Airlines plane, which was hijacked and taken to Kandahar in Southern Afghanistan in 1999.
The militants had been accusing Musharraf of making a complete U-turn on Kashmir and also charged him with succumbing to the US pressure. Reports suggested that the militants were protesting over the reported decision of the Pakistani government to choke off all the funds to these organisations.