india

Updated: Aug 09, 2019 00:13 IST

Leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, was stopped at the Srinagar International airport on Thursday morning and sent back to Delhi by the local administration.

He was accompanied by state Congress chief GA Mir.

Before leaving for Srinagar, Azad courted a controversy with his remarks about the pictures of National Security Adviser Ajit Doval having lunch and chatting with the locals in Shopian. The photos were released by the government on Wednesday.

“You can get anyone by paying money,” Azad told reporters in Delhi. “The people are sad. I am going there to share their sadness,” he added.

Doval spent the day in a series of meetings and then visited some parts of the old city of Srinagar.

The BJP sought an apology from Azad. “He (Azad) is a seasoned leader and we don’t expect him to say that,” said Union minister of state Jitendra Singh.

On his return to Delhi, Azad said the government had “massacred” Jammu and Kashmir. “We have been dismembered. We have lost identity. We have lost everything,” he said, referring to the Centre’s decision to revoke special status to Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcate it into two Union territories.

Restrictions on movement across Kashmir were clamped on Sunday night and communications lines snapped. Since then, many residents have complained of scant medical facilities. Srinagar resident Abdul Rouf’s son contracted jaundice but there was no way to get a mandatory diagnostic test done. “There is no test centre open. Where shall I take him? I have left it to god now,” he said.

Roads remained sealed with barbed wire fences and high barricades, though curbs were eased in some parts of the national highway in Srinagar. With the Eid festival just four days away, some local people said they found it difficult to stock essentials or get adequate cash.

“In normal times, people would be busy buying bakery products and clothes. They are not allowing us to celebrate Eid,” said guard of an ATM at the city centre of Lal Chowk.

Director of Information, Sehrish Ashgar, denied that there was any shortfall of grains or supplies. “All hospitals, district hospitals, tertiary hospitals, mother and child care hospitals are functioning properly. Civil supplies are also stocked and maintained,” he added.