Bharat Jodo Yatra suspended temporarily in Kashmir due to security concerns

The Bharat Jodo march led by Rahul Gandhi was stopped on Friday near Qazigund, the gateway to the valley, after Congress alleged breach of security and mismanagement of crowd by Jammu and Kashmir administration.

AICC incharge Rajni Patil tweeted that JK administration "failed to provide security to Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Shri Rahul Gandhi.

"Security lapses indicate unfair and unprepared attitude of the UT administration," Patil said.

Gandhi, after reaching Qazigund, started to walk towards Vessu in South Kashmir as per the plan but the Congress workers suddenly found that the outer cordon, which was to be managed by Jammu and Kashmir police, had disappeared, Congress leaders alleged.

Gandhi was scheduled to walk 11 kms on Friday but had to call off after he barely walked 500 metres, they said.

"Due to security reasons, we had to stop the yatra temporarily as there was crowd mismanagement along the yatra route approved by the security apparatus," a senior congress leader said.

He said while people had turned up in numbers to show their affection for Rahul Gandhi, there were apprehensions regarding the security of the Congress leader as "people are coming too close to him."

However, because of security mismanagement, Rahul's security did not allow him to walk and he rode his car to the venue of march's night halt at Khanabal, the Congress leader added.