Jammu:
PDP president Mehbooba Mufti was shown black flags at the Jammu Airport on Thursday by local Shiv Sena and Rashtriya Bajrang Dal activists protesting against her remarks on the national flag. The activists asked the former chief minister to go back and threatened to disrupt law and order here if she was allowed to carry forward her Gupkar Agenda in Jammu.
Led by youth leaders Rakesh Kumar and Manish Kumar, the Shiv Sena Sena and Rashtriya Bajrang Dal activists blocked the road on the Jammu Airport and showed black flags on her arrival. However, police later cleared the road to facilitate passage of Mufti. Amid chants of ‘Mehbooba Mufti Hai Hai’ and ‘Mehbooba go back’, the activists, including women, appealed to Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha not to allow the meeting of the Gupkar alliance in Jammu on November 7. Jammu and Kashmir’s mainstream political parties, including the National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party, formed the Gupkar alliance on October 15 for restoration of special status of the erstwhile state and also to initiate a dialogue between all the stakeholders on the issue.
“We will not allow it to happen. We will go there and hold protests. No anti-India meeting will be held on the soil of Jammu,” Shiv Sena leader Manish Kumar told reporters. Mufti’s visit to Jammu can disturb the law and order situation and it is up to the government to take a call to ensure no meeting takes place here, he said.
Rashtriya Bajrang Dal head Rakesh Kumar also said they will not allow the meeting of the Gupkar Alliance to take place in Jammu. “She has come here today with the Gupkar Agenda. We will not allow it here. We warn all those who will take part in their Gupkar agenda,” Kumar said. He hit out at Mufti for her remarks on the national flag. “We have protested against her with black flags. We have shown her black flags because she has always insulted the tricolour and also the law or land,” he added.
Protests were staged outside the PDP office last month after Mufti said she was not interested in contesting elections or holding the tricolour till the constitutional changes enforced on August 5 last year are rolled back. Following the PDP chief’s statements, the BJP had accused her of making “seditious remarks” and had demanded her arrest.
