Yasin held

Srinagar, Oct. 23: Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik has been detained as part of a crackdown on separatists who have called for a poll boycott.

Malik was picked up along with Jamiat-e-Alhi Hadees chief Moulvi Showkat Ahmad Shah around midnight yesterday, hours after the two had led an anti-election rally in Hajan, Baramulla. Hundreds participated in the rally and pledged to boycott the polls. The arrests sparked clashes between security forces and protesters in Srinagar’s Maisuma, where Malik stays.

Uphaar plea

New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to entertain an application by the Ansal brothers seeking review of their bail cancellation in the Uphaar cinema fire case. A two-judge bench said Sushil and Gopal Ansal, owners of the cinema where 59 died in a fire in 1997, could not seek a review of the apex court’s order in the garb of a modification application.

Worker bill

New Delhi (PTI): A bill ensuring social security to workers in the unorganised sector was passed in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday. The bill incorporates around a dozen welfare schemes including health insurance, group accident scheme, saving-cum-relief scheme and family and old-age benefit schemes.

Poachers’ jail

Ahmedabad (PTI): A court on Thursday sentenced 20 people, including nine women, to three years’ imprisonment for poaching of six Gir lions in 2007.