BJP workers attack Kashmir minister’s car

JAMMU - Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers Wednesday attacked Jammu and Kashmir Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather’s car here to protest against the state government preventing party leaders from taking their flag-hoisting march to Srinagar.

Rather’s car was targeted by BJP activists while they were coming out of their party office at Kacchi Chawani, police sources said. The activists spotted the minister’s vehicle and tried to stop it but the driver drove on, hitting a few BJP workers. Some of them suffered bruises.

Rather belongs to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s National Conference.

The BJP activists also yanked off the state flag from the car, the sources added.

They were protesting against their leaders being denied entry into Jammu as part of their Ekta Yatra or national unity march aimed at hoisting the tricolour at Srinagar’s Lal Chowk on Republic Day.

At a press conference at the BJP office here Wednesday, senior party leader Arun Jaitley charged the Omar Abdullah government with “abducting” him and his colleagues Sushma Sawraj and Ananth Kumar from Jammu airport and externing them to Madhopur in Punjab on Monday night.

The Jammu and Kashmir government did not give permission for the BJP march, which started from Kolkata Jan 12, as it believed that it could have reignited tension in the state where calm has prevailed after months of unrest and deadly street protests last summer.