Protests outside PDP’s Jammu office, youth tried to hoist Tiranga atop

Jammu: Protesting against former Chief minister and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti’s remarks on the national flag, a group of youths took out a march outside the party’s Jammu office on Sunday and tried to hoist the tricolour atop the building but were stopped by police.

The incident came days after the Peoples Democratic Party president said she is not interested in contesting elections or holding the tricolour till the constitutional changes enforced on August 5 last year are rolled back.

Mufti had said that she would hold the national flag only when the separate flag of the erstwhile state is restored.

Amid chants of “Tiranga ka apmaan nahi sahenge (will not tolerate the insult of tricolour)” and anti-PDP sloganeering, the youths led by activist Amandeep Singh came on two-wheelers and attempted to hoist the national flag on the PDP office.

However, they were stopped by the police personnel deployed at the PDP office, officials said, adding the protesters later dispersed peacefully.

“We have no affiliation with any right-wing party. We are nationalist by core and will not tolerate any insult to the tricolour, which is our pride and honour,” Amandeep Singh told reporters.

Singh had on Saturday hoisted the national flag on the boundary wall near the main entrance of the PDP office and had a heated argument with two senior party leaders, including former legislator Firdous Ahmad Tak.

Before leaving, Singh had said that he would return with more youths on Sunday to unfurl the national flag at the building.

After the BJP demanded her arrest over alleged “seditious” remarks, Mehbooba Mufti said in a tweet on Saturday that the Indian flag stands for diversity and peaceful co-existence among all.

“If anyone has insulted the Tiranga it is BJP that persecutes minorities and sows division and hatred…,” the former chief minister alleged.

On Saturday, the Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration that is fighting for the restoration of special status to Jammu and Kashmir met in Srinagar and named National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah as its chairman and Mehbooba Mufti as its deputy chairperson.

Abdullah asserted that the seven-party alliance is an anti-BJP platform and not an anti-national grouping. PTI