The Jammu and Kashmir government on Friday extended its iron fist to Shias planning to take out pro-Palestinian protests, locking up a senior leader and an Imambada — a Shia place of worship — and deploying security forces outside another as a warning.

The government also barred Friday congregational prayers at Kashmir’s main Jamia Masjid in Srinagar for the second consecutive week amidst fears of protests against Israel’s bombing of Gaza.

Prominent Shia leader Aga Syed Mohammad Hadi said he was put under house arrest while Imam Bargah Ayatullah Yousuf at Srinagar’s Bemina, where he was scheduled to address people, was locked up.

He posted pictures of the deployment of forces outside his home and the locking up of the Budgam Imambada.

Security forces were also deployed outside another Imambada in Budgam to prevent protests, although people were allowed to offer Friday prayers there.

Shia protesters have traditionally faced little restrictions but the government action on Friday betrayed a firm government resolve to prevent an anti-Israel protest in line with the Centre’s markedly pro-Israel stance.

At Srinagar’s central Jamia Masjid, Anjuman Auqaf, the mosque’s managing body, said the police closed its entry gates and barred them from reopening them for Friday prayers.

The Anjuman said Kashmir’s chief cleric, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who also heads the moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference, remained under house arrest on Friday. He was put under house arrest afresh on October 15, the Anjuman said.

The Mirwaiz was recently allowed to attend prayers at the Jamia after four years of house detention.

“Such measures belie the claim of normality that the authorities make,” the Anjuman statement, quoting the Mirwaiz, said.