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Updated: Feb 23, 2019 19:16 IST

The Centre airlifted an additional hundred companies of paramilitary forces to Srinagar to boost security build up even as police detained JKLF chief Yasin Malik Friday night and arrested dozens of Jamaat-e-Islami workers in the Valley.

The fresh deployment includes 45 companies of the CRPF, 35 of the BSF and ten each of the 10 SSB, and the ITBP

There has been a considerable build-up of security forces across Jammu and Kashmir after the February 14 terror attack in Pulwama which killed 40 CRPF troopers.

Also read: NIA chief visits Pulwama attack site; fresh case filed by agency

About two dozen people associated with the Jamaat-e-Islami were also arrested from central, north and south Kashmir as part of a crackdown after the terror attack on a CRPF convoy that killed 40 troopers in Pulwama on February 14.

Police have so far not commented on the detentions.

The Jamaat-e-Islami termed the move a “well-designed conspiracy to pave way for further uncertainty in the region”.

“During the intervening night of 22-23 February, 2019 police and other forces agencies launched mass arrest drive and raided many houses in the Valley wherein dozens of its central and district level leaders have been arrested,” it said in a statement.

Those detained included its chief (Ameer Jama’at) Dr Abdul Hamid Fayaz, Advocate Zahid Ali (spokesperson), Ghulam Qadir Lone (former secretary general) and dozens more, it said.

In the past 24 hours, Hurriyat leaders & workers of Jamaat organisation have been arrested. Fail to understand such an arbitrary move which will only precipitate matters in J&K. Under what legal grounds are their arrests justified? You can imprison a person but not his ideas. — Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) February 23, 2019

Police and paramilitary forces have been put on high alert since the Pulwama attack

Read more: ‘Don’t need security’: Hurriyat leader Abbas Ansari tells cops to leave.

Earlier this week, the government withdrew the security cover of separatist leaders in Kashmir.