Srinagar, Jun 24 (IANS): The crackdown on separatists in Jammu and Kashmir continued Thursday as hardliner Syed Ali Geelani was booked under the Public Safety Act while moderate Mirwaiz Umer Farooq was put under house arrest.

"Geelani has been booked for provocative speeches inciting youths to violence. We have booked him under the Public Safety Act. I have signed his detention order," said Srinagar District Magistrate Mehraj Ahmad Kakroo.

Geelani was taken into preventive custody along with Ashraf Sehrai, a close associate, June 20.

Informed sources said Geelani was being shifted to a tourist hut in the high-security Cheshmashahi area of the city keeping in consideration his age and failing health.

In order to scuttle the separatist all parties meet convened by Mirwaiz Farooq Thursday to forge unity among separatist groups, authorities placed him under house arrest in his uptown Nigeen residence.

The decision to crack the whip on the separatist leaders was taken by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.

Police sources also said that more than 40 activists belonging to both the hardline and moderate Hurriyat groups have been detained in the last 24 hours.

Pro-independence leader and Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik has been shifted to the Srinagar central jail after he courted arrest here last week while alleging human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir.