Gandhi admits situation in Kashmir ‘not normal’
Srinagar
Congress’s Rahul Gandhi and other Indian opposition leaders were asked to return back from the Srinagar airport after they landed on Saturday to examine the ground situation following the Indian government’s move to revoke the special status of the valley.
According to reports in Indian media, a delegation of opposition leaders comprising Gandhi, Ghulam Nabi Azad, D Raja, Sharad Yadav, Manoj Jha, Majeed Memon and others that had reached Srinagar had been sent back. The Indian opposition leaders were expected to visit some other parts of the valley, however, authorities in occupied Kashmir did not allow any Indian leader to enter the valley.
Speaking to the media before boarding the flight, the opposition leader had said they wanted to assess the situation in the valley which has been under lockdown for three weeks now. However, amid restrictions imposed in the region since the abrogation of Article-370, the delegation was not allowed to step out of Srinagar airport and was sent back after an hour, NDTV reported.
Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma were the top Congress leaders other than Rahul to visit the region. The occupied Kashmir administration had earlier asked the leaders not to visit the valley. According to India Today, the Indian opposition leaders and media representatives were separated on reaching Srinagar. When the media tried to approach them, police allegedly misbehaved with journalists.
“If the situation is normal then why is the government restricting us from entering the valley. On the one hand, the government says that things are normal and on the other, they impose entry restrictions, why so much contradictions,” Nabi told reporters before taking the flight from New Delhi.
After the delegation led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was sent away at the Srinagar airport, the scion of the Gandhi political dynasty has conceded that the law and order situation in the Himalayan valley is “not normal.”
According to India Today, the Indian opposition leaders and media representatives were separated on reaching Srinagar. When the media tried to approach them, police allegedly misbehaved with journalists.
Azad was twice stopped at Jammu airport, most recently, and was “forcibly” sent back to Delhi on each occasion.
Nearly 400 Jammu and Kashmir politicians and leaders, including former chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, were either arrested or detained following the centre’s decision to withdraw special status, said the report. Security forces were deployed in strength in many places to maintain law and order amid unrest over India’s treatment of the region.
