Rahul Gandhi, other Opp delegation sent back from Srinagar airport

New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, along with a delegation of Opposition leaders, has been sent back from Jammu and Kashmir's Srinagar airport. Gandhi and other Opposition landed at airport around 2pm on Saturday, to review the situation in state, where restrictions have been imposed since the central government withdrew its special status under Article 370 and split the state into two Union Territories earlier this month.

According to the sources, Rahul Gandhi led Opposition delegation were separated from media and are not being allowed to exit the Airport.

The police allegedly misbehaved with reporters after they tried to approach the leaders.

Among the parties that were part of the Opposition delegation that will land at Srinagar are Congress, CPI-M, CPI, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Nationalist Congress Party, Trinamool Congress and the DMK, news agency, quoting sources.

Ghulam Nabi Azad, K C Venugopal and Anand Sharma were be other Congress leaders in the delegation. Trinamool Congress (TMC)’s Dinesh Trivedi, Tiruchi Siva of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury and Communist Party of India’s D Raja were also in the delegation. Loktantrik Janta Dal’s Sharad Yadav, Manoj Jha of Rashtriya Janata Dal, Majeed Memon (Nationalist Congress Party) and D Kupendra Reddy of the Janta Dal (Secular) also left with the team.

The leaders arrived at Delhi



airport on Saturday morning and boarded a scheduled flight from to Srinagar.

Before leaving, the leaders insisted that they were only going to assess the ground realities and not for creating any disturbance.

 “Senior Trinamool Congress leader Dinesh Trivedi @DinTri to visit Srinagar on Saturday along with other Opposition leaders. They will see the situation in the valley after abrogation of Article 370,” the TMC tweeted.

Reacting to the delegation’s visit, the Jammu and Kashmir administration asked political leaders to cooperate and not visit Srinagar. It added they would be putting other people to inconvenience. “They would also be violating restrictions that are still there in many areas. Senior leaders should understand that top priority would be given to maintaining peace, order and preventing loss of human lives,” the administration tweeted.

It also urged political leaders to not make attempts to disturb their efforts to protect the people of the state from the threat “of cross-border terrorism and from attacks by militants and separatists”.

On Thursday, the Opposition parties staged a protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, to demand the release of scores of political leaders arrested or detained in Jammu and Kashmir.

However, Azad was earlier stopped at Jammu airport twice, most recently on Tuesday, and was "forcibly" sent back to Delhi on each occasion.