Delegation to Valley sent back

Srinagar, August 24

An all-party delegation, led by former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, was on Saturday stopped at the Srinagar airport and sent back to Delhi soon after they landed here in view of the “law and order situation”.

The 12-member delegation included Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, CPI leader D Raja, CPM’s Sitaram Yechury, Congress leaders Anand Sharma and KC Venugopal, LJD chief Sharad Yadav, Trinamool Congress leader Dinesh Trivedi, DMK’s Tiruchi Siva, NCP leader Majeed Memon, RJD’s Manoj Jha and D Kupendra Reddy of Janata Dal (Secular).

The delegation arrived at the Srinagar airport around 1 pm, but was not allowed to move out of the airport, officials here said. The delegation later returned to Delhi after about two hours.

In Delhi, Rahul said a few days back he was invited by the Governor to visit J&K and that he had accepted his invitation. “We wanted to get a sense of what people are going through, but we were not allowed beyond the airport.” Hitting out at the government, he said, “Press people with us were badly handled and beaten up. It is clear that the situation in Jammu and Kashmir is not normal.”

“The government says situation is normal. But then they don’t allow leaders to visit J&K? Haven’t seen such a contradiction. If things are normal there, why aren’t we allowed to visit?” Azad asked.  — TNS

PCI backs centre

New Delhi: The Press Council of India (PCI) has moved the SC supporting the Centre’s decision to impose restrictions on communication in J&K following abrogation of Article 370. The PCI said due to the security concerns there can be reasonable restrictions on the media. TNS