Cops beat up 3 youths for bid to hoist Tricolour at Lal Chowk
Vikram Sharma
Tribune News Service
Jammu, August 16
Three youths from different parts of the country who attempted to hoist the national flag at Lal Chowk, Srinagar, on Independence Day were beaten up by the J&K Police allegedly on the directions of the state government before they were sent back.
Vinayak Sharma, 35, from Swai Madhopur, Rajasthan; Rahul Singh 32, from Bihar; and Satinder Singh Rana, 34, from Delhi; marched to Lal Chowk holding the Tricolour and streaming the event live on Facebook on August 15 morning. However, the J&K Police swooped upon them and beat them up mercilessly.
“It was the timely intervention of CRPF personnel present at the spot that stopped the policemen. The CRPF men escorted us to their van before rushing us to a nearby health centre,” said Vinayak.
Later, the CRPF personnel took the three to the airport from where they boarded an Air Asia flight at 7.55 am for New Delhi.
On August 12, Congress youth secretary Vinayak Sharma and two others had declared their “patriotic intention” via a video to hoist the Tricolour at historic Lal Chowk on August 15.
Taking an online travel package, they all met at Delhi and boarded a Go Air flight of 5.40 am on August 13 and landed at Srinagar. They had booked a hotel room at Rajbagh and stayed there for the whole day while mingling with the local people.
Next day they had a booking at Yatri Niwas, just a few metres away from the Ghanta Ghar at Lal Chowk. Around 9.30 pm on August 14, nearly 10 armed policemen came to their room and asked them about their visit to Kashmir. “They asked us about the Tricolour and warned us not to come out of the room until August 15 evening,” said Vinayak.
Since the three had early morning departure tickets of August 15, they somehow managed to give the slip to the guards and went marching towards Lal Chowk with the Tricolour aloft and chanting “Bharat Mata Ki Jai.”
“Before the police could pounce on us, we streamed the live video on Facebook and greeted the nation with Vande Mataram,” said Vinayak, who received a lathi blow on his head.
Vinayak said the last year also he and his men had hoisted the Tricolour at Tral where the public countered them by waving Pakistan flags.
