J&K Congress chief, senior leaders taken into police custody during protest against rising inflation

J&K Pradesh Congress Committee chief Ghulam Ahmad Mir along with working president Raman Bhalla and nearly 50 party leaders and workers were taken into custody by the police on Thursday when they were protesting against hike in fuel price and rising inflation near Tawi Bridge in Jammu

Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee chief Ghulam Ahmad Mir along with working president Raman Bhalla and nearly 50 party leaders and workers were taken into custody by the police on Thursday when they were protesting against hike in fuel price and rising inflation near Tawi Bridge in Jammu.

Congress party activists protesting against rising inflation in Srinagar on Thursday. (Waseem Andrabi/Hindustan Times)

Carrying placards and banners and shouting slogans, the Congress workers led by Mir and other senior leaders held a strong protest near Maharaja Hari Singh statue at Tawi bridge. They were taken into preventative custody as their number swelled while they were on their way to Tawi Bridge and disrupted traffic on the highway for some time.

The police had a tough time controlling the mob, but the senior leaders told the workers to restore hassle free traffic movement. They were then taken into custody and sent to district police lines in Gandhi Nagar and later released.

Earlier, addressing the gathering, Mir lashed out at the Modi government and BJP “for fleecing poor people by imposing unreasonable taxes” and blamed the Centre of “indulging in tax terrorism to give undue benefit to big capitalists at the cost of poor people”.

While describing the Centre as anti-poor, Mir said, “Prices of all essential commodities are sky rocketing and the poor are unable bear the burden. The BJP is totally insensitive to their hardships.”