The barricades set up by Serb militants in northern Kosovo will be removed within the next 24 to 48 hours, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said early Thursday according to state broadcaster RTS.

The announcement comes after Vučić met representatives of Kosovo Serbs in the Serbian town of Raska near the border.

Serb militants had set up barricades along the roads to the Brnjak and Jarinje crossings in northern Kosovo. Militants have also blocked roads elsewhere in Serb-majority northern Kosovo.

They are protesting the arrest of a Serb former police officer in the Kosovan police whom the Kosovan authorities say led attacks on election commission officials.

A court in Pristina released the man under house arrest on Wednesday, the Kosovan news portal koha.net reported.

Kosovo, which today is almost exclusively inhabited by Albanians, used to belong to Serbia but has been independent since 2008. Serbia does not accept its independence and claims the territory of the country for itself.

The area north of the divided city of Mitrovica on the river Ibar is almost exclusively inhabited by ethnic Serbs and borders directly on Serbia. Vučić encourages the inhabitants of the area not to recognize the supremacy of the Kosovan state.

Source: dpa/MIA