Yashwant Sinha barred from moving out of Srinagar, meeting detained leaders

Former Union minister Yashwant Sinha. (Source: Express photo by Prem Nath Pandey)

Having been denied permission to travel to Pulwama in south Kashmir due to “impending terrorist threat”, former Union minister Yashwant Sinha and members of the Concerned Citizen Group were on Saturday not allowed to travel outside Srinagar.

Sinha, the first political leader allowed into the Valley without court intervention since August 5, when J&K’s special status was scrapped, said the group had planned to visit Budgam, in central Kashmir, on Saturday morning, but found the hotel gates closed. “We were planning to travel to Shopian on Sunday, but again the permission has been denied,” he told The Sunday Express.

Sinha and his associates arrived in Srinagar on Friday.

The visiting team said the authorities have denied them permission to meet the three former J&K chief ministers or CPI(M) leader M Y Taragami, all of whom are under detention.

Sinha said they were served a written advisory Friday. “We were informed that Pulwama is highly volatile area and in view of impending terrorist threat…not to undertake the journey,” he said.

Sinha’s visit comes in the middle of a renewed shutdown in the Valley, with business establishments remaining closed and public transport off the roads on Saturday. Traders in the Valley had spontaneously shut their businesses on Thursday, a day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s statement in Parliament that there is “total normalcy” in Kashmir.

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