IMAGE: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addresses the media after their return from Srinagar, at IGI airport in New Delhi on Saturday, August 24, 2019. Photograph: Ravi Choudhary/PTI Photo
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday said leaders of the opposition and the press got a taste of the “draconian administration” and “brute force” unleashed on the people of Jammu and Kashmir when they tried to visit Srinagar.
A delegation of opposition leaders, including Gandhi, which wanted to visit Kashmir Valley to take stock of the situation there after the abrogation of the provisions of Article 370, was not allowed to leave Srinagar airport on Saturday by the state administration and had to return to the national capital.
“It’s been 20 days since the people of Jammu & Kashmir had their freedom and civil liberties curtailed,” Gandhi said in a tweet.
“Leaders of the Opposition and the Press got a taste of the draconian administration and brute force unleashed on the people of J&K when we tried to visit Srinagar yesterday,” he said.
The former Congress president also posted a video of Saturday’s events, showing authorities reading out an order to the opposition leaders and Gandhi addressing the media.
The video showed Gandhi speaking to the media and alleging that media persons accompanying the delegation were mishandled and beaten up.
He also said it is clear that things are “not normal” in Jammu and Kashmir.
During Saturday’s attempt to visit the Valley, Gandhi was accompanied by Congress’s Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma and KC Venugopal, Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader Tiruchi Siva,
Loktantrik Janata Dal’s Sharad Yadav, Trinamool Congress leader Dinesh Trivedi, CPI’s D Raja, Nationalist Congress Party leader Majeed Menon, Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Manoj Jha and Janata Dal-Secular’s D Kupendra Reddy.
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