New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi along with leaders of nine other Opposition parties will try and travel to Srinagar on Saturday to get a feel of the situation after the abrogation of Article 370 which promised special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
The leaders who will accompany Mr Gandhi include Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad, DMK’s Tiruchi Siva, NCP’s Majid Memon, NC’s Hasnain Masoodi, CPI(M)’s Sitaram Yechury, CPI’s D. Raja.
The SP, BSP and JD(S)’s participation has not been confirmed yet. It might be recalled that Mr Azad was sent back twice when he flew to Srinagar and Jammu since August 5 after the special status of J&K was scrap-ped. Mr Yechury and Mr Raja were also not permitted to go out of Srinagar airport when they went there.
Mr Gandhi had also recently engaged in a war of words with Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik while seekingpermission to visit the state on Twitter.
The decision to attempt to reach Srinagar was taken at a meeting of Opposition parties on Friday. The meeting was attended by members of the parties that were present at Thursday’s protest meet on the situation in Kashmir where the leaders had called for the release of all leaders including former chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti who was under detention.
Friday’s meeting was held in Parliament at Mr Azad’s House. However, as soon as the new of the Opposition leader’s visit to Srinigar broke on the social media, the Jammu and Kashmir government quickly tweeted, asking them not to visit.
“At a time when the government is trying to protect the people of Jammu and Kashmir from the threat of cross border terrorism and attacks by militants and separatists and gradually trying to restore public order by controlling miscreants and mischief mongers,” it said.
“Attempts should not be made by senior political leaders to disturb the gradual restoration of normal life. Political leaders are requested to cooperate and not visit Srinagar as they would be putting other people to inconvenience. They would also be violating restrictions that are still there in many areas. Senior leaders should understand that top priority would be given to maintaining peace, order and preventing loss of human lives,” the tweet said.
