Cong prevented from addressing presser, spokesperson detained

17/08/2019

JAMMU, Aug 16: The Jammu and Kashmir unit of the Congress was on Friday prevented from addressing a press conference as police detained its chief spokesperson and formner MLC Ravinder Sharama at the party headquarters here.
Sharma was about to address a press conference at the Shaheedi Chowk party headquarters when a police party appeared on the scene and asked him to accompany him as a senior officer wanted to talk to him.
Sharma resisted and asked them that he is going to address the waiting media, but he was forcibly taken into the preventive custody and whisked away to a police station in a police vehicle waiting outside the party headquarters.
"The action of the administration is undemocratic and unconstitutional. We were holding a presser to highlight the snatched rights of the people and arrest and house arrest of party leaders (since the abrogation of the provisions of Article 370 on August 5)," Chairman Other Backward Classes (OBC) unit of the party Suresh Kumar Dogra later told reporters.
He termed the detention of Sharma as the violation of the right to freedom of speech and expression guaranteed by the Constitution.
"This is total dictatorship and encroachment on our right to put forth our point of view in a democratic manner...We are not going to launch a rebellion against the government's move on Article 370," Dogra said.
A police officer said Sharma was taken into preventive custody to maintain law and order.
"There was an apprehension that his speech might instigate people and result in law and order situation," he said, asking not to be named.
The Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) on Friday said its chief Gulam Ahmed Mir was put under house arrest by the authorities here.
"Jammu and Kashmir Congress president Gulam Ahmed Mir Mir was put under house arrest in Jammu Friday afternoon. Restrictions were imposed on his movement within and outside the state," a party spokesman said.
Senior Congress leaders, including Tara Chand, Madan Lal Sharma, Mula Ram, Jugal Kishore, Yogesh Sawhney, Manohar Lal Sharma, strongly condemned the detention of Mir.
It as an undeclared emergency imposed in the state without any justification, they said.
They leaders said the governor administration on one hand and is claiming total normalcy in the state, but on the other hand detentions are taking place even in Jammu.
Earlier in the day, the state unit of the Congress was prevented from addressing a press conference here.
Police detained party's state unit chief spokesperson and former MLC Ravinder Sharma at the party headquarters here.
Sharma was about to address a press conference at the Shaheedi Chowk party headquarters when a police party appeared on the scene and asked him to accompany him as a senior officer wanted to talk to him.
A police officer said Sharma was taken into preventive custody to maintain law and order.
"There was an apprehension that his speech might instigate people and result in law and order situation," he said, asking not to be named.

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