Bhubaneswar: CPI workers protest against Yechury, D Raja's detention at Srinagar airport

Communist Party of India (CPI) workers protested in Bhubaneswar on Sunday against the detention of CPI General Secretary D Raja and CPI (Marxist) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury at Srinagar airport.

Protesters were seen raising slogans against the detention of the two leaders and held placards saying "D. Raja and Yechury's detention at Srinagar undemocratic".

Present at the protest, CPI National Executive Committee member Ram Krishna Panda said, "D Raja and Sitaram Yechury both wrote to the governor of Jammu and Kashmir that they were going to meet their workers and the ailing CPI (M) MLA Mohammad Yusuf Tarigami. Despite writing to the administration, they were illegally detained at Srinagar airport."

"The Prime Minister says that the situation in Jammu and Kashmir has improved. Yet both were stopped and detained. We call this undemocratic and we condemn it," Panda added.

D. Raja and Sitaram Yechury were detained at Srinagar airport on Friday while they were on their way to meet their party leaders.

The CPI-M also condemned the detention of two leaders and said it showed the "authoritarian face of BJP government".

Yechury had on Thursday written to Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik saying that he will be visiting Srinagar on Friday to meet his party MLA and other members of the party.

Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad was also detained at the Srinagar airport on Thursday and sent back to the national capital.

The city is under restrictions following Centre's decisions to bifurcate the state into two union territories and to whittle down Article 370.