Police Blocking Workers En Route To Srinagar For Statehood Restoration Protest: Congress

SRINAGAR, July 19: As the Congress steps up its campaign for the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood, the party today alleged that police stopped its workers from various districts while they were en route to Srinagar, where a major protest march is being held.
Ahead of the protest, J&K Congress president Tariq Karra said the people who were heading to join the march from various districts were stopped on different routes.
“ They are not being allowed to reach the Congress headquarters in Srinagar from where the march is scheduled to start,” Karra told reporters in Srinagar. “ This is an undemocratic act by the administration and shows they are in panic .”
Karra along with AICC general secretary G.A. Mir and other senior leaders are planning to lead a peaceful procession around noon in Srinagar to reiterate the demand for the complete restoration of statehood to J&K.
Party said the march will culminate at the divisional commissioner’s office, where senior leaders will submit a memorandum to the Divisional Commissioner for onward submission to the Prime Minister through Lt Governor of J&K, a Congress spokesman said.
The protest will not be limited to Srinagar, but Congress is planning to hold protests in Jammu, and a sit-in at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on July 22, a day after the Monsoon Session of Parliament begins.
“The campaign for the restoration of statehood has been ongoing for several months, and the joint letters from the party’s top leadership have injected fresh momentum into the movement,” a senior leader said.
The protest comes just days after party president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to act swiftly on the issue.
Kharge and Rahul Gandhi appealed to the Prime Minister to introduce legislation for the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood in the upcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament has sparked a fresh wave of optimism among politicians in the region.
Jammu and Kashmir was stripped of its special status and downgraded to a Union Territory on August 5, 2019, following the abrogation of Article 370. Since then, political parties have consistently been demanding restoration of statehood.
In a joint letter, the Congress leaders said that downgrading a state to a Union territory lacks precedent in independent India and reminded the Prime Minister of his promises of restoring J&K’s statehood.
The Prime Minister has “on multiple occasions, personally reiterated the government’s commitment to restoring statehood,” the letter read, pointing out at least two instances last year when PM Modi promised to restore the region’s status.
For the past five years, the people of Jammu and Kashmir have consistently called for the restoration of full statehood, the Congress leaders said, calling their demand both legitimate and firmly grounded in their constitutional and democratic rights. (Agencies)