Shah likely to unfurl Tricolour in Srinagar

Amit Khajuria

Tribune News Service

Jammu, August 13

Union Home Minister Amit Shah is likely to visit the Kashmir Valley and unfurl the Tricolour on Independence Day at Lal Chowk in Srinagar, say sources. Reports say the Union Home Minister is closely monitoring the situation in Kashmir even as National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval is camping in the Valley to take stock of the security situation.

The sources say that the state machinery has already been instructed to make arrangements for the visit which will be Shah’s first after the Centre scrapped Article 370 and bifurcated Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories. The proposed visit assumes significance as it will send out a message across the country that the situation in the Kashmir valley is normal.

In 1992, senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi, accompanied by Narendra Modi, had unfurled the Tricolour at Lal Chowk despite the threat from Pakistan-based terror organisations. Lal Chowk, the  commercial hub of downtown Srinagar, came into limelight when India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru unfurled the national flag there in 1948.

Broke chains of Art 370, 35A: PM 

I want to clearly assure my sisters and brothers of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh that these regions will develop as per the wishes of local people, their dreams and ambitions. Articles 370 and 35 A were like chains that kept people tied. — Narendra Modi, PM