Rahul Gandhi and other opposition leaders to visit J&K today
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will visit Jammu & Kashmir on Saturday along with 11 other leaders from various opposition parties. The delegation of opposition leaders would reportedly meet the people of J&K where restrictions have been imposed since August 5 when the Center abrogated Article 370, withdrawing the special status granted to J&K, and bifurcated the state into two Union Territories. Here's more.
The opposition all-party delegation will reportedly land in Srinagar. So far, the government has not allowed any political leader to enter J&K since the abrogation of Article 370. Apart from the Congress, parties like Trinamool Congress, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India (CPI), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) are part of the delegation.
Other than Gandhi, other top Congress leaders like Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma are likely to visit J&K. Earlier, Azad was stopped twice at Jammu airport and forcibly sent back to Delhi. Other opposition leaders in the delegation include CPI-M's Sitaram Yechury, CPI's D Raja, DMK's Tiruchi Siva, RJD's Manoj Jha, and Dinesh Trivedi from TMC.
Apart from Srinagar, the opposition leaders reportedly intend to visit some other parts of J&K, if allowed to enter. Meanwhile, the Jammu and Kashmir Department of Information and Public Relations (J&K DIPR) on Friday requested opposition leaders to not visit Srinagar. "Political leaders are requested to cooperate and not visit Srinagar as they would be putting other people to inconvenience," the J&K DIPR tweeted.
The J&K DIPR tweeted that "attempts should not be made by senior political leaders to disturb the gradual restoration of normal life" at a time when the "government is trying to protect the people...from the threat of cross border terrorism and attacks by militants and separatists." It added that the government is "gradually trying to restore public order by controlling miscreants and mischief mongers."
"They (opposition leaders) 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 J&K DIPR tweeted.
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. (2/3)
— DIPR-JK (@diprjk) August 23, 2019
