Police on Monday prevented some Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) workers from hoisting tricolour at Clock Tower here, even as the party organised a function to mark the 73rd year of accession of J&K with Union of India.
At around 6 am, a police party caught hold of the BJP workers when they tried to hoist tricolour at the Clock Tower. “We prevented them and later allowed them to go,” a police official said, adding “we did not know who they were and we had no information.”
After the incident, more security forces were deployed at the place to prevent any other such incident. Meanwhile, BJP celebrated ‘accession day’ by organising a function at Tagore Hall here and carried out a rally.
The event was followed by “Tiranga rally”, which was led by BJP General Secretary and incharge for Kashmir, Vibodh Gupta, and BJP Vice President and Co-incharge Kashmir, Sofi Yusuf. The rally which was taken out from Tagore Hall concluded at SKICC.
Speaking on the occasion, Gupta said “overwhelming” response from local people and massive participation in the rally was a “tight slap” on those leaders of Kashmir who have made “seditious statements” in the last few days.
He said the rally passed through Gupkar Road and residence of leaders like PDP chief Mehboba Mufti and National Conference President, Farooq Abdullah. “This massive rally stands testimony to the fact that Gupkar Declaration leaders are living in fool’s paradise,” he said.
Gupta said on this day in 1947 Maharaja Hari Singh, then ruler of J&K, “signed Instrument of Accession with Union of India and as such this day forms a very important landmark in the history”. “The role played by local Kashmiris particularly Maqbool Sherwani also deserves praise,” he added.
Vibodh said that the dream of Maharaj Hari Singh “is being envisioned by PM Narendra Modi and the mission of peace, prosperity and development in the Valley is at its peak”.
He called upon the youth of J&K to resolve on this historic day that they will not fell “into the trap of separatist and power-hungry political parties including PDP and NC.” He asked youth to “commit themselves towards the cause of peace and prosperity”.
Several party leaders including Ali Muhammad Mir, GM Mir, Altaf Thakur and Darakshan Andrabi also spoke on the occasion. In charge Media and Information technology Manzoor Bhat extended his thanks to party workers and senior leaders for their cooperation in organising the event. Among others present on the occasion were Muhammad Ashraf Azad, MM War, Manzoor Bhat, Arif Raja, Aijaz Hussain, Dr Rafi, Dr Fareeda, Anwar Khan, Bilal Parray, Mushtaq Noorabadi, Wajahat Hussain, Mohammad Sidiq Khan and Mir Zahoor.