JAMMU/SRINAGAR: Top BJP leaders were released on Wednesday by the Jammu and Kashmir Government after two days’ arrest that foiled the party’s move to hoist the national flag in Srinagar’s historic Lal Chowk on Republic Day.
A livid Arun Jaitley, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, slammed the Central and state governments, accusing them of “hijacking and abducting” party leaders to stop the ‘Ekta Yatra’ (integration march) in order to please the separatists in Kashmir.
Swaraj rubbished the invitation extended over phone by Omar to Jaitley asking the BJP leaders to participate in the Republic Day celebrations in Srinagar.
“Was he not aware that we were under arrest,” she asked.
Jaitley said both the Centre and the state government wanted to send a message to the separatists that the BJP leaders have been stopped to appease them.
“When the country was celebrating Republic Day, both Leaders of Opposition were in jail,” remarked Sushma Swaraj at the BJP headquarters in Delhi, seeking a response from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the kind of governance being provided by him.
She wanted to know under what rule the leaders were arrested and prevented from entering J&K.
Jaitley said he talked to J&KChief Minister Omar Abdullah on phone, objecting to the third-degree methods used against political activists.
Advani termed the arrest and the beating of the BJP youth activists as “totally unconstitutional, illegal and criminal”.
Hundreds of BJP activists later hoisted the tricolour near the Madhopur bridge that separates Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab to mark the country’s 62nd Republic Day.
Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Ananth Kumar and Shanta Kumar were earlier freed from the hotel in Kathua where they were held since Tuesday evening after their arrest.
In Srinagar, about 10 BJP activists were held by police while attempting to march towards Lal Chowk to hoist the flag.
Police also rounded JKLF leader Yasin Malik, who had announced a counter-march to Lal Chowk, moderate Hurriyat Conference leaders Bilal Lone and Shahidul Islam and their supporters from Maisuma locality on their way to the city centre.
minister’s cavalcade gheraoed
BJP activists in Jammu gheraoed the cavalcade of J&K Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather and took off the state flag from his car, officials said.