Headlines
Legislator protesting townships for Kashmiri Pandits held
Srinagar, May 5
Police detained a legislator
here on Tuesday as he staged a protest march against the centre's
reported decision to set up composite townships for migrant Pandits in
the Kashmir Valley.
Engineer Rashid, an independent MLA from
north Kashmir's Langate constituency, had come out with a group of
supporters in Srinagar city's Batmaloo area to stage the protest.
While
Rashid and his supporters were marching towards the civil secretariat,
some distance away from Batmaloo, police intercepted the march and took
him into preventive custody.
The civil secretariat that started
functioning in Srinagar on Tuesday after its six- month sojourn in
Jammu, houses the offices of the state chief minister, his ministerial
colleagues and all top bureaucrats of the state.
In another
incident, a group of Congress party activists started a march towards
the civil secretariat as part of the party's announced programme to
besiege the secretariat.
As the Congress activists reached the
city's Badshah Chowk area, some youths from the adjacent Maisuma area
started pelting stones on them while raising anti-India and pro-Azadi
(freedom) slogans.
Police intervened with batons and tear smoke canisters to restore order in the area.