Serbs have erected barricades in multiple locations in the north region of Kosovo and Metohija in a show of protest over the arrest of former member of the Kosovo Police Dejan Pantić.

Sirens were heard in the north part of Kosovska Mitrovica and Zvečan. The internet and cellular networks in the north of Kosovo and Metohija have been disrupted.

A small number of members of the Kosovo Police have taken up positions in the Bosnian Mahala and the in the Three Skyscrapers neighborhood.

EULEX vehicles are patroling the town.

Members of Kurti’s police arrested Dejan Pantić today at the administrative crossing in Jarinje. Pantić is a former member of the Kosovo Police who resigned from this institution along with his colleagues on November 5, and had been assigned to the police station in Kosovska Mitrovica prior to that, said the Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Petar Petković.

Petković’s announcement said that Dejan Pantić went to Raška with his wife this morning to run personal errands, he crossed the administrative crossing without incident, but was handcuffed by police officers upon return and taken to the Kosovo Police base in the vicinity of the crossing, according to the latest information.

“This is a brutal act of reprisal and intimidation on the part of Albin Kurti, who has now decided to persecute Serbian police officers to whom he is trying to attribute acts that they had nothing to do with, without any basis or evidence, in order to attempt to intimidate all Serbs who are not willing to put up with his terror and violation of agreements. By doing this, Kurti is trying to take revenge on them for leaving all institutions in the north, including the police,” Petković pointed out.