The Jammu and Kashmir Police on Monday arrested 10 persons for allegedly attempting to revive separatist bodies Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front and All Parties Hurriyat Conference.

They have been booked under Section 121A (conspiracy to commit offences) of the Indian Penal Code and provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. “This meeting was an overt attempt to start working for revival of these moribund organisations,” the police said in a statement.

The men were first detained on Sunday at a hotel in Srinagar after the police conducted searches based on information about a meeting of some “ex-terrorists” of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front and “erstwhile separatists”, the police said.

The All Parties Hurriyat Conference distanced itself from the 10 men soon after their detention, claiming they were attending the meeting in their individual capacity, reported The Hindu.

“It was not any Hurriyat event nor was Hurriyat leadership aware of it,” the organisation said. “In fact it is through the media that Hurriyat came to know about it. So to attribute motives to Hurriyat in this regard is mere speculation and totally baseless.”

It added that the men had gone to attend an Eid Milan luncheon, reported The Hindu.

The Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front is a banned organisation and authorities have not allowed Hurriyat to hold any meetings since 2019.

In their statement, the police claimed that initial investigation showed that the 10 men were in touch with foreign entities and that a few of them were members of groups that propagated secessionism, like the Kashmir Global Council and Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front.

The police also claimed that a similar meeting was also held on June 13. They added that the investigation is underway and more arrests are likely.