BJP yatra stopped after entering Jammu (Second Lead)
By IANSTuesday, January 25, 2011
JAMMU - The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) flag-hoisting march to the Kashmir Valley was stopped Tuesday evening shortly after hundreds of party workers crossed into the state after removing barricades with many of them courting arrest.
“Crossed the bridge. The road is blocked. We have been stopped,” BJP leader Sushma Swaraj who is leading the march tweeted.
The controversial march to the state battling a separatist campaign since 1989 was scheduled to culiminate at Srinagar’s Lal Chowk area, a historic square witness to many political events of the troubled state, including first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s address in 1947.
Many of the BJP activists courted arrest as soon as they entered Jammu and Kashmir from Punjab and were taken away in buses to an undisclosed destination.
Amritsar MP Navjot Singh Sidhu said that among others who crossed the bridge were Ananth Kumar and Shanta Kumar. They removed the barricades and concertina wires on the bridge that Madhopur in Punjab to Lakhanpur, 90 km from Jammu.
The Jammu and Kashmir government has not given permission for the Ekta Yatra, or the national unity march, because it believes that the march may reignite tension in the state where calm has prevailed after months of unrest and deadly street protests last summer.
