Opposition delegation led by Rahul Gandhi sent back to Delhi from Srinagar

A delegation of parties including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was on Saturday not allowed to go out of Srinagar airport and was sent back to Delhi.

The delegation came back to Delhi this evening.

The delegation comprising opposition parties like Congress, CPI, DMK, RJD, TMC, NCP and JD(S) was visiting the city in Jammu and Kashmir to see the ground reality days after the Centre abrogated Article 370.

Senior leaders like Ghulam Nabi Azad Congress, Anand Sharma, Sitaram Yechury, Sharad Yadav, Manoj Jha, Majeed Memon, Tiruchi Shiva and D Raja were the part of the delegation which left from Delhi for Srinagar earlier in the day.

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

After not being allowed to visit Srinagar, the Congress tweeted, "If the situation in Jammu and Kashmir is "normal" as the government claims, why has the delegation of Opposition leaders led by Rahul Gandhi been sent back from Srinagar airport? What is the Modi govt trying to hide?"

Earlier on August 20, leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad was stopped and sent back from the airport in Jammu. Azad was stopped at the Jammu airport while he was reportedly on his way to attend a meeting to be held in the headquarters of the District Congress Committee there.

On August 9, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury and CPI leader D. Raja were detained at the Srinagar airport while on their way to meet party leaders and denied entry into the region.

After repealing of provisions of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir, which granted it special status, several leaders in the Valley were put under house arrest as a precautionary measure by the Centre. The security was also heightened in the area after the Centre's decision to revoke Article 370.

Earlier this month, Parliament defanged the Article 370 also passed the Jammu and Kashmir (Reorgsation) Bill 2019, reorgzing the state into two Union Territories -- Jammu and Kashmir with Assembly and Ladakh without legislature.

( With inputs from ANI )