The Jammu and Kashmir police has begun a crackdown on BJP activists as the party’s youth-wing is adamant to hoist the tricolour at Srinagar’s historic Lal Chowk on Republic Day despite the official ban.
The police on Saturday arrested six BJP workers, all local Muslim youth, from Maulana Azad Link Road on the charge of violating prohibitory orders in force in the state’s summer capital.
The police also confiscated some posters from them. “They were carrying posters and other material. They have been arrested and material has been seized,” a police spokesperson here said.
Witnesses said that the police also seized a few BJP flags from the arrested persons. Later their colleagues were stopped from addressing a hurriedly convened press conference at a city hotel. A contingent of armed policemen has been deployed also outside the party office at Raj Bagh here which is locked from outside for the past few days.
The state government had on Thursday formally decided to foil the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM)’s plan to hoist the national flag at Lal Chowk and directed the civil and police authorities to “initiate all requisite measures towards ensuring the law and order in the state is not disturbed in the run up to the Republic Day celebrations.”
It was also decided that no programme “which has the potential of vitiating the peaceful atmosphere in the state will be allowed.”
The security at and around Lal Chowk has been strengthened further after deploying additional CRPF and local police personnel.
In all probability, the BJYM’s “Ekta Yatra” who started from Kolkata earlier this month and is scheduled to culminate at Srinagar’s Lal Chowk where its president Anurag Thakur wants to hoist the tricolour will be stopped on Monday from entering Jammu and Kashmir.
The police is also keeping a close watch on BJP activists within the state and they may be taken into preventive custody ahead of Republic Day.