Uproar over hoisting of Pak flags at Geelani’s Tral rally

Tribune News Service

Srinagar/Jammu, May 2

Jammu and Kashmir today witnessed an uproar over waving of Pakistani flags during a rally held by separatist leader Sayed Ali Shah Geelani at Tral on Friday.

While Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed said “law will take its own course”, the BJP, a part of the coalition government, demanded action against Geelani for the “provocative” act.

The opposition Congress chided Prime Minister Narendra Modi for repeated incidents of waving of Pakistani flags while senior National Conference leader and party general secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar said Pakistani flags would keep coming in the future.

Condemning the incident, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said Mufti Mohammad Sayeed government would rise to the occasion and take steps to ensure that such incidents did not recur. Mufti, meanwhile, assured of “action” against the violators.

“We expect that he (Chief Minister) will live up to expectations of the people and the nation (by ensuring swift action in such incidents),” said Jitendra. The government had reiterated time and again that there was no place for Pakistani flags being hoisted, he said.

Slamming Geelani for his demand of restricting the annual Amarnath yatra to 30 days and waving of Pakistani flags, Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh observed that separatists had become irrelevant and they were committing such acts to seek the attention of the masses.

Asked whether the government was considering action against Geelani, the Deputy Chief Minister said, “The law will take its own course.”

NC’s Sagar stoked a fresh controversy by saying such flags would keep coming in the future as well. “Pakistani flags have been hoisted here before as well and there is nothing new in it. These flags will keep coming in the future as well,” Sagar told reporters on the sidelines of a protest rally in Srinagar’s Lal Chowk.

Congress Legislature Party Leader Nawang Rigzin Jora mocked and questioned the Prime Minister. “Why is it that Pakistani flags are being unfurled in Kashmir with increasing frequency when the BJP is in power at the Centre as well as in the state? Has the BJP given separatists a free run? How else does one explain unfurling of Pakistan flags in Tral yesterday?”

Jora further asked whether the Prime Minister has surrendered himself to Mufti Sayeed and his soft separatist policy.

Meanwhile, the Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena and Jammu West Assembly Movement activists staged protest against Geelani in Jammu. Bajrang Dal activists burnt an effigy of Geelani and demanded his arrest.