Azad stopped at Srinagar airport; being sent back to Delhi

Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, who reached the Srinagar Airport on Thursday to visit his home and for party meetings, is being “sent back” to Delhi, a leader from his party said.

“He is being sent back by 3.30 pm flight. He was to attend a meeting and visit his residence,” said the leader, who did not wish to be named.

Azad, a former chief minister of state and the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, boarded a flight early in the morning from Delhi and reached Srinagar airport. The party leader said that he was not allowed to go out of the airport.

Azad told ANI before his departure to Srinagar that he always visits the city at the end of the parliament session.

“I always go [to Kashmir] after the end of the Parliament session. I have not asked anyone for permission. I am going to join the people in times of (their) suffering,” he said.

Congress has opposed the Centre’s decisions to bifurcate the state into Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh and to repeal Article 370, though some have backed the move.

Azad slammed the Centre over its decisions and over restrictions placed on the people in Jammu and Kashmir.

“People of Jammu and Kashmir are angry. There is no internet, no WhatsApp, no vehicular movement. It is the first state where a law is passed after the imposition of a curfew,” he said.

Congress Working Committee (CWC) on Tuesday adopted a resolution stating that the party disapproves the “unilateral, brazen and totally undemocratic manner” in which the Article was abrogated.

Various opposition leaders including PDP president Mehbooba Mufti and National Conference deputy chief Omar Abdullah have been placed under preventive arrest.

Both Houses have passed the bill bifurcating Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories and the resolution revoking Article 370.