Srinagar, Aug 12 (IANS): Separatist leader Yasin Malik was on Wednesday arrested here when he was on way to Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district where a youth was killed by security forces, police said.
The chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) was detained along with several party activists at Pandrethan, four kilometres from Srinagar.
Bilal Ahmad Bhat, 23, a resident of Padgampora village of Pulwama, was killed on Tuesday when security forces fired at a group of protesters after a gunfight in which two militants were killed.
The JKLF chief was on way to express solidarity with the family of the slain youth, a party spokesman said.
Separatist leaders have called for a shutdown in the district on Wednesday to denounce the youth's killing. Malik has been lodged in a city police station.