Furious Jaitley, Swaraj allege hijacking, abduction in Jammu

Jan 26, 2011 |

IANS

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Jammu: The BJP on Wednesday accused the central and the state governments of 'hijacking and abducting' its top leaders to foil the party's 'Ekta Yatra'.

Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj, opposition leaders in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha respectively, levelled the charges against the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the centre and the Omar Abdullah government in Jammu and Kashmir at a press conference here.

Jaitley and Swaraj arrived here after being released earlier in the day from the hotel in Kathua, 85 km south of Jammu, where they were lodged after their arrest on Tuesday.

Jaitley said that the "fight is not over, it will continue, and the government of India, the ministry of home affairs, railways and Jammu and Kashmir will have to explain their actions."

He said the trains they were travelling on were detached.

"This is called hijacking."

"We three (Jaitley, Swaraj and Ananth Kumar) were forcibly lifted and taken to Punjab on Monday night. This action is illegal as there is no legal validity of such actions. In simple words, it is an act of abduction committed by the state."

He said this has happened for the first time since 1947 when the people have been arrested for carrying national flag and entering Jammu and Kashmir.

Jaitley also said that both the central and the state governments did so with an 'objective of pleasing separatists. The state has ideologically and psychologically surrendered before the separatist'.

Jaitley was referring to militant-turned politician Yasin Malik, whose militant outfit Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front had declared that it would not allow the BJP to hoist the national flag at Lal Chowk.

The BJP launched its 'Ekta Yatra' from Kolkota on January 12, culminating in the flag-hoisting ceremony in Srinagar's Lal Chowk on the 62nd Republic Day.

But the state government foiled the attempt. The party leaders and workers were arrested on Tuesday evening when they entered Lakhanpur, the gateway to Jammu and Kashmir from Punjab.

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