NEW DELHI, Sept 6: Indian paramilitary personnel surrounded the homes and offices of senior APHC leaders after they were placed under house arrest on Friday, ostensibly to prevent them from launching a campaign against polls in occupied Kashmir that the group is boycotting.

Reports from Srinagar said another reason for the sudden decision for the house arrest appeared to be an attempt by a section of the fractious establishment to prevent the APHC leaders from attending talks in New Delhi at the weekend with a hitherto officially-backed Kashmir Committee.

All Parties Hurriyat Conference chairman Prof Abdul Ghani Bhat told news channels in Srinagar that he had been asked to stay home. He had to cancel his flight to New Delhi where he was due to lead the talks.

A four-member APHC delegation was set to leave for New Delhi on Friday to meet members of the Kashmir Committee headed by former law minister Ram Jethmalani.

On Friday, around 25 paramilitary men ringed Prof Bhat’s house. Police also placed under house arrest many other pro-independence leaders, including Shabir Shah, who held a series of meetings last week with opposition leaders in New Delhi.

Maulvi Abbas Ansari and JKLF leader Javed Mir were among those sought to be detained but Mir apparently escaped from his office.

“The ill-conceived decision to place Hurriyat leaders under house arrest will do nobody any good. They wanted us to be restrained from carrying out our meet-the-people programmes and meeting the members of the Kashmir committee in Delhi on Friday,” said Prof Bhat.

“As a matter of fact, they have done our job. The message has gone to the people in Kashmir as well as to the people who feel concerned about the situation in the region.”

The leaders may leave for Delhi on Saturday.

APHC leader Maulvi Umar Farooq warned of agitation if the government prevented the alliance delegation from visiting New Delhi.

“We have decided to go to New Delhi on Saturday,” Maulvi Farooq, APHC’s former chairman, said. “But if we are prevented, like today by the police, we will launch an agitation over the issue,” he said. “We will give a programme to the people that will frustrate the government,” he added.

“I have called up the Kashmir Committee secretary and told him to reschedule the meeting for Saturday at 7pm,” Maulvi Farooq said.

APHC’s peaceful opposition to the polls was accompanied elsewhere with violence.

An independent candidate, a political activist of the Communist Party of India, and two other candidates campaigning for the upcoming elections in Jammu and Kashmir were shot dead by militants in two incidents.

In another attack, four activists of the Janata Dal (United) were injured.

Sheikh Abdul Rehman, an independent, was campaigning in his constituency of Handwara, when militants opened indiscriminate fire at his car, killing him on the spot.

His nephew Nazir Ahmed and the driver of the car were also killed on the spot. Rehman’s relative Abdul Aziz was injured in the firing. The police escort following Rehman’s car also fired at the militants, who, however, managed to escape.

AFP adds: Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee will ask the United States during his visit next week to push Pakistan to stop violence in occupied Kashmir ahead of elections there, officials said on Friday.

Mr Vajpayee will meet US President George W. Bush on Sept 12 on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting in New York.