BJP’s Ekta Yatra reaches Pathankot, to enter Jammu Tuesday

PATHANKOT - Hundreds of BJP youth wing activists reached this town Monday evening, on the last leg of their march before entering Jammu and Kashmir Tuesday to proceed with their controversial national flag hoisting programme in Srinagar Jan 26. A heavy posse of Jammu and Kashmir police has been deployed at Lakhanpur, 10 km away, to block the entry of the marchers into the state.

The Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha’s (BJYM) Rashtriya Ekta Yatra, a campaign for national unity, is supposed to move towards Jammu and Kashmir through the border town of Lakhanpur Tuesday.

Around 2,000 Jammu and Kashmir Police personnel have been deployed at Lakhanpur border town to foil the march.

According to a BJP spokesperson, BJYM leaders and participants of the yatra will gather near the statue of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, founder of the Jana Sangh, the predecessor of the BJP, in Madhopur town here at 11 a.m. Tuesday and start moving towards Jammu.

The yatra began from Kolkata Jan 12 and, according to the plan, is to culminate Jan 26 with the hoisting of the national flag at Srinagar’s historic Lal Chowk.

The Jammu and Kashmir government has expressed deep reservations about the flag hoisting plan, terming it as a bid to inflame communal passions in the valley, and separatist leaders have planned a counter-march on the same day.

Anurag Thakur, BJYM president who is leading this march, Monday said: Nobody can stop our movement as we are living in a free country. Our intentions are nationalist and we do not intend to disturb peace and law and order situation.

I invite the Jammu and Kashmir government to take part in this campaign, he added.