Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 9: Congress leaders and activists staged a strong protest demonstration and took out rally in old city here today over the failure of PDP-BJP Govt to check activities of communal and divisive forces who have vitiated the atmosphere of peace and harmony in the State.
A large number of leaders and workers of the party held a strong protest demonstration and led a march from Parade Ground, Kachi Chhawni, Panjtirthi to Raj Bhawan over the increased activities of communal forces and incidents aimed at creating religious divide in the society and total failure of the Govt to check such incidents exposing the BJP of its double standards. They raised slogans against tax on pilgrims in the State.
The protesters raised slogans against the PDP-BJP Govt and accused the coalition partners of encouraging and allowing the fundamentalist forces to indulge in provocative actions to hurt the religious sentiments of the people while condemning the alleged sacrilegious acts in Udhampur area leading to unrest amongst the people.
The protesters led by senior Congress leaders and former Ministers Raman Bhalla, Mula Ram, Yogesh Sawhney, Dr Manohar Lal, Shabir Khan & Manjit Singh; Kanta Bhan, Balwan Singh, Vikram Malhotra, Manmohan Singh, Ravinder Sharma, Anil Copra, Namrata Sharma were confronted by the police at various places in a bid to stop them to proceed towards Raj Bhawan but large number of them moved ahead and also held strong protest at Kachi Chhawni near BJP Headquarters, raising their voice against the double standards of the BJP over the issue of beef ban, accusing the leadership of exploiting the people of Jammu region over the issue for vote bank politics. They said that the BJP ministers and leaders claimed that the beef ban shall be strictly implemented while on the other hand the PDP-BJP Govt filed SLP in the Supreme Court against the order of High Court itself.
Raman Bhalla said that BJP leaders have befooled the people to exploit their religious sentiments in order to hide their failures and surrender for the sake of power. They also questioned the BJP legislators for their drama to win sympathy of the people, after the so called beef party in high security MLA Hostel, when it was published & announced much in advance. They failed to lodge FIR.
Mr Bhalla also lashed out at the politics of deceit of the BJP with the electorate and the coalition partners have vitiated the atmosphere of peace and brotherhood due to its wrong and opportunistic policies and cautioned the people against such elements to create regional and religious divide.
Later, a large number of senior leaders and workers, around 250, were taken into custody, packed in police buses and trucks by the police and taken to District Police Lines, Gandhinagar. They were later released. Prior to their release, senior vice president of PCC Sham Lal Sharma also visited and addressed the gathering and lashed out at the policies of the coalition Govt and accused BJP of total surrender and compromise over the interests of people of Jammu region for sake of power.
Prominent among others included Faqir Nath, Pranav Shagotra (PYC), Neeraj Kundan (NSUI), Neeraj Gupta, Pawan Raina, Thomas Khokher, Hari Singh Chib and Prabha Slathia.
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