Hurriyat leaders released after brief house arrest ahead of Sartaj's visit to New Delhi

Syed Ali Geelani still remains under house detention; Indian officials say 'surprise' expected in NSA-level talks

Hours after they were placed under house arrest on Thursday, authorities in Srinagar released Kashmiri Hurriyat leaders, Hindustan Times reported.

Syed Ali Shah Geelani and leaders of the moderate faction Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Moulvi Abbas Ansari and JKLF leader Yasin Malik  had been placed under house arrest Thursday morning. While leaders of both factions of Hurriyat were released in two hours, Geelani remains under house detention as his movements are generally restricted in the valley.

"Whether Geelani sahib will be allowed to travel to Delhi remains to be seen,'' said Hurriyat spokesperson Ayaz Akbar.

The house arrest - and subsequent release - comes three days ahead of their meeting with Adviser to the Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz on his visit to India.

Pakistan High Commission had invited separatist leaders for meeting with Aziz during his stay in Delhi.

Read: Sartaj Aziz to visit India for talks on August 23

Indian government official confirmed they would not call off next week's talks with Aziz despite his plans to meet Hurriyat leaders in New Delhi, according to Indian media.

The government has decided to go ahead with the talks and without elaborating, have said that it has a 'surprise' for Pakistan in the talks, added the Indian government official.

Steps were taken to prevent the separatists from going to Delhi to meet Aziz, police sources told Hindustan Times.

Former Indian Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah slammed the government’s flip-flop over the arrests.

Shelling, Infiltration, terror attacks & now Hurriyat arrests, clearly no side wants to talk & yet neither side has the guts to call it off.

— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) August 20, 2015

Playing out in Kashmir - confusion, pure & simple unadulterated confusion.

— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) August 20, 2015

Earlier this week, top civil and military leadership agreed to adopt an aggressive stance on terrorism related issues while finalising a strategy for the upcoming interaction. It was also agreed that a give-and-take approach on bilateral disputes would be used.

It was proposed that Aziz should take up the issue of the release of Samjhota Express incident’s mastermind, India’s involvement in Balochistan and Afghanistan and its violation of ceasefire at the Line of Control and the working boundary.

Read: Civil-military huddle crafts talks’ strategy

Further, the civil-military also agreed that the outcome of the NSA’s meeting should not be ambiguous or one-sided but rather they should send a clear message to all stakeholders.

The national security advisers’ meeting is part of the understanding reached between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit held in Ufa, Russia in July.