Srinagar, Aug 11 (KNO): Senior Congress leader Nizamudin Bhat on Monday slammed the physical manhandling of Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) President Tariq Hammed Karra and other leaders, including the members from civil society, during a ‘peaceful awareness’ programme in Jammu, terming it an ‘assault on democratic rights.’
Addressing a press conference in Srinagar, Bhat, as per the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), said that the incident occurred when Congress leaders and workers had gathered in Jammu as part of their ongoing campaign for the protection of people’s rights.
Bhat said that the party had formally applied for permission to hold the programme five days in advance, but the administration refused to allow the event at the planned venue near the statue of Maharaja Hari Singh.
“When the leaders, including legislators and former ministers, moved to the Congress office on Wazarat Road and continued their programme peacefully, the police arrived and began taking objectionable photographs of participants,” Bhat alleged. “When MLA Karra objected to this, he was surrounded by police, subjected to jostling and even manhandled by a local DSP, the same officer accused of misbehaving with another legislator in Rajouri recently.”
Bhat described the incident as ‘deeply condemnable’, saying it reflected an alarming trend of using the police to intimidate elected representatives and silence political voices.
“Legislators, senior leaders and respected citizens were made to sit under the blazing sun like criminals,” he said. “This is not how responsible governments treat constitutionally recognised public representatives. The Congress has always worked within the law and upheld democratic values, yet our leaders are being harassed and humiliated.”
He warned that such actions were aimed at ‘muzzling the democratic voice’ in Jammu and Kashmir and reiterated that the Congress would not be deterred. “We are stakeholders and shareholders in this democratic system,” Bhat said. “We demand that the administration respect the dignity of elected representatives and citizens. The people of Jammu and Kashmir will not accept being treated as second-class citizens in their own land.”—(KNO)