SRINAGAR: The family of a separatist icon from Indian occupied Kashmir have been booked for police investigation under a sweeping anti-terrorism law for chanting pro-freedom slogans and wrapping his body with Pakistan's flag after he died, officials said.
Tensions in the Himalayan territory have been heightened since Syed Ali Gilani died on Wednesday at the age of 92 in the main city of Srinagar.
Police in Kashmir said a case under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) -- which effectively allows people to be held without trial indefinitely -- was registered on Saturday against Gilani's family.
They have not yet been detained by police.
In India a booking may not necessarily lead to a formal charge, but is an incident that is officially recorded. Critics say bookings have been used by police to intimidate locals in the region.
Syed Ali Gilani's son Naseem Gilani did not deny the allegations but repeated earlier claims that police took his father's body away to be buried in the middle of the night just hours after his death, and did not allow the family to perform last rites.
"We told the visiting police officers that they had taken control of everything after my father's death and that we were mourning. We had no way of knowing who was doing what," the son told AFP on Sunday.
Authorities on Sunday eased a lockdown imposed to maintain calm after his death across Kashmir, allowing for limited movement. An internet and mobile phone shutdown was partially eased on Saturday.
Anger has simmered in the territory since 2019 when New Delhi controversially revoked the region's semi-autonomy and brought it under direct rule.
Residents in the Muslim-majority region say repression has intensified in the two years since the changes.
India has used the vaguely-worded UAPA legislation against thousands of Kashmiri residents, journalists and dissidents, according to activists.
Rebel groups have been fighting Indian forces for decades, demanding independence for the territory or its merger with Pakistan that controls a part of it.
Tens of thousands have died in the fighting, most civilians.
