JAMMU: Police on Wednesday released four top BJP leaders detained as part of the crackdown on the saffron party's Ekta Yatra to hoist the tricolour at Lal Chowk in Srinagar on the Republic Day.
The state government deployed thousands of troops and arrested hundreds of BJP activists to foil the march "aimed at vitiating the state's peaceful atmosphere" on Tuesday.
Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Ananth Kumar and Shanta Kumar were released from a hotel in Kathua, where they were being held, after the official Republic Day celebrations ended at Jammu's Maulana Azad Stadium. Officials said a case against the four for violating prohibitory orders in Kathua was withdrawn before their release. DIG Gareeb Dass escorted them to Jammu where they addressed party workers at BJP's state headquarters.
"The yatra has concluded because it was to culminate on January 26. Now it is for the government to answer why opposition leaders were kept in custody on Republic Day," Swaraj told reporters.
The BJP leaders earlier spurned Jammu & Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah's invitation to attend the celebrations in Jammu or Srinagar. "It was a face-saving exercise. We were released at 12.40 when these functions had concluded," said Swaraj.
Republic Day celebrations ended peacefully in Kashmir amid heavy security. Police said BJP activists made several attempts to hoist the national flag at Lal Chowk. "Seven BJP workers were arrested around Lal Chowk while trying to hoist the flag there," said an officer. One worker was identified as Gurgaon's Srikant Sharma. "He was arrested after he appeared at Lal Chowk carrying the flag in the morning."
Hundreds of troops carrying automatic rifles, patrolled empty streets and put up barricades to prevent a separatist march to Lal Chowk. "Curfew was imposed in several parts of Srinagar," the officer said.
Several separatist leaders, including JKLF leader Yasin Malik, were arrested to foil their Lal Chowk march.
BJP youth wing president Anurag Thakur, who led the yatra from Kolkata, claimed three activists managed to unfurl the tricolour at Lal Chowk. "The culmination of the yatra with hoisting of the tricolour at Lal Chowk is the victory of nationalism."
Blocking yatra shores up CM's image
J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah's tough handling of BJP's Tiranga Yatra made him unpopular with the saffron party but it appears to have improved his image in the Valley.
The Rising Kashmir newspaper, that was scathing in its criticism of his handling of the summer agitation in the state, likened Omar's approach to the yatra to his grandfather Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah's crackdown on Bhartiya Jan Sangh leader Shyama Prasad Mookerjee's march in 1953.
Source:-http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Omar-foils-BJPs-flag-hoisting-plan/articleshow/7368954.cms
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