The Jammu and Kashmir government have arrested Hurriyat leader Masarat Alam on Friday morning from his house in Srinagar, allegedly because the “media wanted Alam to be arrested”.Quoting senior police officials, The Hindu reported on Friday that the state government had arrested Alam over the Pakistan flag hoisting row, but the police footage of the on Wednesday rally where this had occurred, did not show a Pakistani flag in Alam’s hands.The police officer told The Hindu: “The media wanted Alam to be arrested and the BJP sternly told Mufti Sayeed that they wanted him arrested, and the State government instructed us to arrest him,” a senior police official told The Hindu. “Alam in fact did not raise any flags. On the footage of the rally with the police, he does not raise the flag but shouts pro-Pakistan slogans.”Alam and other Hurriyat leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani, and Pir Saiffullah were booked under the UAPA for allegedly raising pro-Pakistan slogans and waving a Pakistan flag.The Indian Express reported that Alam was arrested hours after he was placed under house arrest to prevent him from attending a rally in Tral, where a civilian youth was allegedly killed by the Army in a “fake encounter”.Khalid Muzaffar was killed in an encounter on Monday, but his family alleges that he was not a militant and that he had been killed in cold blood. Geelani was scheduled to hold a rally in Tral today, where demonstrations are likely to be held protesting Khalid’s killing.Alam had in the past been booked under numerous cases and had spent the last five years in jail. He was released days after the new government took office.