Mir among scores of leaders detained
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, June 13: Scores of Congress leaders and workers including JKPCC president GA Mir, working president Raman Bhalla were detained today after they staged protest demonstration and tried to take out a march in Jammu to lodge their protest against misuse of Government agencies against opposition leaders by the BJP-led Central Government.
Today’s protest at Jammu and Srinagar was part of the nationwide agitation by the Congress against questioning of former Congress president Rahul Gandhi by the Enforcement Directorate in the National Herald money laundering investigation.
A large number of Congress workers led by G A Mir assembled outside party headquarters at Shaheedi Chowk, Jammu and staged a sit-in protest before starting a march which was, however, foiled by the police by barricading the main Residency Road. When the protesters tried to break the police cordon, the policemen swung into action and detained the protesters who were taken to police lines Gandhi Nagar in the buses.
Prominent among those who were taken into preventive custody include working president Raman Bhalla, vice president Mula Ram, Kanta Bhan, chief spokesperson Ravinder Sharma, former ministers Shabir Ahmed Khan and Yogesh Sawhney, T S Bajwa (Ex-MP), Balwan Singh (Ex-MLA), president Pradesh Mahila Congress Indu Pawar, Hari Singh Chib (DCC president-Jmu),Manmohan Singh and Youth Congress president Uday Bhanu Chib.
“The entire Congress leadership is on the roads across the country and our aim is to march towards ED offices to lodge a protest against the BJP-led government which is misusing central agencies,” Mir told reporters before being detained by police.
Amid anti-BJP and pro-Congress sloganeering by the protesters, Mir alleged that BJP is using the agencies like ED, National Investigation Agency and Central Bureau of Investigation to browbeat the opposition.
“Anyone speaking against the wrong policies of this government becomes the target of the Central agencies. We are protesting against this situation and the undemocratic actions,” the Congress leader said.
Congress Chief spokesperson Ravinder Sharma said the party rank and file would not be cowed down by such measures. “We stand with our leader Rahul Gandhi and are ready to give any sacrifice,” Sharma said.
Similar protest led by former minister Taj Mohiuddin was held at Srinagar. Many party leaders heads of frontal wings of the party joined the march organized in protest against ED summons to top AICC leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
Prominent among others who joined the protest include, Bashir Ahmed Magrey, Surinder Singh Channi, Shameema Iqbal, Abid Kashmiri, Imriaz Parray, Fayaz Ahmed Mir, Mushtaq Ahmed Kahndey and Nissar Mundoo.
Meanwhile, several senior Congress leaders including Peerzada Mohd Sayeed ( former PCC president) , Ghulam Nabi Monga, Mohd Amin Bhat, Mohd Anwar Bhat, Zahid Hussain Jan, Inayatullah Rather, Manzoor Ahmed Ganai and others termed the ED’s questioning of party leader, Rahul Gandhi and notice to AICC leader Sonia Gandhi as political vendetta by BJP led Government at the Centre. They condemned the revengeful attitude of BJP against top Congress leaders and alleged that BJP was misusing its power.
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