KATHUA/JAMMU, Oct 19: Shiromani Akali Dal (A) chief Simranjit Singh Mann’s protest at Lakhanpur — the gateway to Jammu and Kashmir bordering Punjab — after being denied entry into the Union Territory entered the third day on Wednesday.
Mann, a Member of Parliament from Sangrur in Punjab, was stopped on the orders of Kathua District Magistrate Rahul Pandey, leading to protests by the politician and his supporters since Monday evening.
He spent a second night in his vehicle on the road at Lakhanpur, SAD(A) officials said.
Supporters from Jammu, Kathua and Punjab continued to throng the protest site and raised slogans against the BJP and the Jammu and Kashmir administration, the officials said.
Mann is in the process of approaching courts in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir, they added.
Pandey and Kathua Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) RC Kotwal visited the protest site again on Tuesday night and requested Mann to return to Punjab, the party officials said.
Pandey, in his order issued under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), had said Mann’s was scheduled entry into Jammu and Kashmir was likely to cause “disturbance in public tranquility”.
“Therefore, I, in exercise of the powers vested in me under Section 144 CrPC do hereby prohibit Mann from entering the jurisdiction of Kathua,” Pandey had said. Criticising the administration’s decision, Mann had earlier said, “I am a Sikh and that is why BJP and the RSS did not allow my entry into Jammu and Kashmir.”
“There is no legislature in Jammu and Kashmir, which is under military rule. There is no democracy. I have come to visit the people of Kashmir to see for myself what is happening (post abrogation of Article 370). I want to highlight the real picture to the outside world,” he had told reporters.
The administration has beefed up security at Lakhanpur and additional deployments have been made as a precautionary measure to enforce the prohibitory orders and maintain law and order, officials said. (Agencies)
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