A delegation of opposition party leaders who had accompanied former Congress President Rahul Gandhi on his visit to Jammu & Kashmir has been sent back from Srinagar. They were not allowed to leave the airport and were made to return within an hour of their landing.
Delegation of opposition leaders comprising Rahul Gandhi, Ghulam Nabi Azad, D Raja, Sharad Yadav, Manoj Jha, Majeed Memon, and others that had reached SRINAGAR has been sent back. #JammuAndKashmir
— ANI (@ANI) August 24, 2019
The delegation included leaders from the Congress, CPI-M, CPI, RJD, NCP, TMC and DMK. From the Congress party, Ghulam Nabi Azad, K.C. Venugopal and Anand Sharma accompanied Rahul Gandhi. Apart from them, CPM’s Sitaram Yechury, CPI’s D Raja, DMK’s Tiruchi Siva, LJD’s Sharad Yadav, TMC’s Dinesh Trivedi, NCP’s Majid Memon, RJD’s Manoj Jha, and JDS’ D K Reddy were also part of the delegation. Congress President Sonia Gandhi had skipped joining the delegation.
The opposition leaders were visiting the valley despite a request from the Jammu & Kashmir administration to not visit the valley as the security forces are busy trying to protect the people from terror attacks, cross border terrorism as well as attacks by militants and separatists. The administration also said how there are restrictions in certain parts of the valley and the political leaders going there would violate these restrictions and they could add inconvenience to other people.
