SRINAGAR, Oct 22: Police in Indian-administered Kashmir on Wednesday detained an influential pro-independence leader and three of his colleagues, sparking protests by their supporters, officials said.

They said Yasin Malik, chairman of the pro-independence Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), and three other leaders were picked up by police as they left their office in Srinagar for the southern township of Tral.

As the news of Malik’s detention spread his supporters poured on to the streets near the JKLF headquarters in the Miasuma area of the city, and started shouting anti-government slogans, witnesses said.

They stoned police, who retaliated by firing teargas.

Residents said shopkeepers in the area closed their shops in protest against the detention.

Police were worried that Malik may have been going to Bijbehara township, where people are protesting against the killing of an innocent civilian allegedly by security forces during a cordon and search operation, a police source said. Police said the man died in the exchange of fire.

Police also put hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani, who was planning to visit Bijbehara, under house arrest in Srinagar, police sources said.

On Wednesday, Bijbehara was also mourning the death of more than 40 innocent people who died 10 years ago when security forces opened fire on a procession in the town which was protesting a siege of Kashmir’s revered Hazratbal mosque in Srinagar.