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SRINAGAR: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and other opposition leaders were on Saturday not allowed to enter Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir. Notably, prior to the opposition leaders leaving for Srinagar, the government had said their visit would create law and order situation in the region.
The former Congress president went to Srinagar along with 11 other opposition leaders across party lines. They left for Kashmir onboard a Vistara flight from the national capital around 11.40 AM.
This comes weeks after the Centre abrogated Article 370, the special status given to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.
The parties that accompanied the Congress leaders were Trinamool Congress (TMC), CPI-M, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD), CPI, DMK, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Janata Dal (Secular) and Samajwadi Party (SP).
The Congress-led Opposition delegation included Ghulam Nabi Azad, Sitaram Yechuri, D Raja, Manoj Jha, Anand Sharma, D Kupendra Reddy, Majeed Memon, KC Venugopal, Tiruchi Siva, Sharad Yadav, and Dinesh Trivedi.
On August 13, Rahul had accepted an “invitation” extended by Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik to visit the region, which is currently under an unprecedented security cover. Responding to Malik’s statement wherein he said that he would send an aircraft for the former Congress chief to visit Jammu and Kashmir and see the prevailing situation for himself, Rahul said that instead of the aircraft, he would need “freedom” to travel and meet people.
Taking to microblogging site Twitter, the Gandhi scion shared a report where Malik was quoted as saying that he had invited Rahul to the Valley. The Congress leader tweeted that he would accept the “gracious invitation” and would want to meet common people, political leaders and soldiers deployed.
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