SRINAGAR, March 12: Police in occupied Kashmir used teargas and batons to break up a Muharram procession on Wednesday and arrested 80 people, including two top leaders.

Some 100 people, led by Maulvi Abbas Ansari, gathered in Srinagar’s busy Maulana Azad Road, reciting verses from the Holy Quran and chanting “Hussain, Hussain”.

They were joined by Javed Mir, a senior leader of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), of which Ansari is also an executive member.

Police barricaded the marchers, lobbed teargas canisters and charged at them with batons. Both Ansari and Mir were pulled into waiting police vehicles and taken to a nearby police station.

Some 80 other people were also detained.

“We are running from one quarter to another to disperse the marchers as there is blanket ban on processions in Srinagar,” a police official said.

Religious processions have been banned in held Kashmir since the freedom movement began in 1989.

But people had hoped that the new government, which came to power in November, would allow this year’s Muharram processions to take place.

EIGHT DIE: New Delhi claimed on Wednesday that its forces had shot dead nine militants in separate encounters in held Kashmir.