Srinagar/New Delhi, Jan. 26: The Kashmir Valley witnessed a tense Republic Day on Wednesday as the authorities enforced a tight security clampdown to foil attempts by BJP activists and Muslim separatists to pour into Srinagar’s Lal Chowk.
The separatists had called for observance of a “black day”, forcing the authorities to detain their leadership or put them under house arrest and take other tough preventive measures. The shutdown call was widely obeyed by people.
The tricolour was, however, raised at around 10 places near Lal Chowk.
A lone BJP supporter, later identified as Mr Srikant from Gurgaon, appeared at Regal Chowk, less than 100 yards from Lal Chowk, holding the flag at 8.30 am. The police quickly arrested him. Later, at about 11 am, six more BJP activists emerged from a city hotel and began to march towards Lal Chowk. They too were swiftly arrested.
Dubbing the move of the Jammu and Kashmir government and the Centre as “criminal”, the senior BJP leader, Mr L.K. Advani, said the party could move the court against the “unconstitutional and illegal” stand taken by the state administration.
The BJP leaders, Mr Arun Jaitley, Ms Sushma Swaraj and Mr Ananth Kumar, who were taken into custody on Tuesday on their entry into the state for the proposed tricolour hoisting, were released on Wednesday.
The saffron leaders lashed out at the Chief Minister, Mr Omar Abdullah, who had on Tuesday invited them to attend the Republic Day function at Bakshi Stadium.
Terming Mr Abdullah’s gesture as “grand standing”, Mr Jaitley said that how could he join the event when he was under arrest at that time. Ms Swaraj termed the CM’s invitation as a ‘farce’.
“This is an extra-ordinary situation. This is the first Republic Day after Emergency when Leaders of Opposition of both Houses of Parliament were kept under arrest. And our fault was that we were entering J&K and for this crime we were arrested,” she said.
Besides 200 BJP activists, those released by the police included BJYM chief, Mr Anurag Thakur.