Jammu, Jul 20: Police Sunday foiled Congress’ march to Raj Bhawan Jammu, over J&K statehood issue, by briefly detaining Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) president Tariq Hameed Karra and other senior leaders.
All Congress leaders, including Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader and former minister G A Mir and JKPCC working president and former minister Raman Bhalla, who were taken into custody (preventive detention) by the Police and shifted to District Police Lines (DPL) Gandhi Nagar, were released by the Police after an hour or so.
Earlier Congress workers, led by JKPCC president, had assembled at party headquarters for the scheduled march to Raj Bhawan from Shaheedi Chowk, Jammu as part of party’s “Hamari Riyasat, Hamara Haq” movement, seeking restoration of statehood.
As they began their protest march from Congress headquarter Jammu, the police, deployed in good strength, tried to stop them at Shaheedi Chowk. This led to scuffle with the Police as the protestors tried to break the barricades and marched towards Residency Road and Raghunath Bazar.
A large number of workers and leaders, who pushed their way towards Residency Road, were boarded in the waiting police buses and taken to DPL Jammu while Karra and few others, who succeeded to reach Raghunath Bazar Chowk, were later taken into detention.
Besides, Karra, Mir and Bhalla, former minister Chowdhary Lal Singh, AICC secretaries Shah Nawaz Chaudhary, Neeraj Kundan and senior leaders Balwan Singh, Mula Ram, Ravinder Sharma, Yogesh Sawhney, MLA Iftikhar Ahmed, Naresh Gupta, Balbir Singh, Indu Pawar, Manmohan Singh, Hari Singh Chib, T S Tony, ex legislators; DCC presidents; frontal heads; ex Corporators and Mahila Congress leaders were also taken into custody by the Police briefly.
Later, talking to reporters, Karra lashed out at the Modi government for, what he alleged, “delaying and denying legitimate demand of full statehood as promised to the people of Jammu and Kashmir by the Centre on multiple occasions and directed by the Supreme Court.”
He said the Congress party was determined to fight for the rights and aspirations of the people; for the identity and status and to safeguard the rights to land, jobs and natural resources.
“We are not on the roads to spread unrest. We only wanted to submit representation to the Prime Minister through LG. Use of force cannot deter our spirits. Congress party is at the forefront both in J&K UT and at national level. Our leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi have reminded the Prime Minister of the promise of the central government to grant full statehood and it has the backing of I.N.D.I.A, block,” he said.
Karra announced to go ahead with the scheduled “Chalo Delhi Chalo” call of the party for July 21 afternoon as part of “Parliament gherao” march.
Mir criticized the police administration for stopping the peaceful march of the party first in Srinagar on Saturday and in Jammu on Sunday. He also took strong notice of the placing of barbed wire before the barricade which posed great danger to peaceful protestors.
Mir said that the central government promised statehood on a number of occasions during the last six years. “But now it is silent, causing unrest amongst people,” he said. He expressed gratitude to the Congress leadership for taking up the demand at this crucial time when the monsoon session of Parliament would begin on Monday, July 21, 2025.
