Rahul Gandhi's Mission Kashmir unsuccessful

Rahul Gandhi and Opposition leaders aboard the flight to Srinagar. Pic/ANI

Srinagar: An opposition party delegation, led by former Congress President Rahul Gandhi, was on Saturday stopped at the Srinagar airport and sent back to Delhi, soon after they landed here. The delegation of 12 opposition leaders had left Delhi by 11.50 am Air Vistara flight. It was not allowed to leave the airport, sources said.

The delegation wanted to visit the Valley to take stock of the situation. The Valley has been placed under security lockdown since August 5, when Article 370 was abrogated.

The delegation comprised the Communist Party of India (CPI) leader D Raja, Communist Party of India (Marxist) Sitaram Yechury, Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma and KC Venugopal, Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) Chief Sharad Yadav, Trinamool Congress leader Dinesh Trivedi, DMK's Tiruchi Siva, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Majeed Memon, RJD's Manoj Jha and Janata Dal Secular's D Kupendra Reddy.

On Friday, the J&K administration had advised the opposition leaders not to visit, saying attempts should not be made to disturb the gradual restoration of normalcy in the state.

The visit of the Opposition delegation comes almost three weeks after the Centre abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution that accorded special status to J&K.

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