BJP, MLA supporters clash in Pulwama

Activists of Jammu and Kashmir’s regional Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday clashed in the southern town of Pulwama where the former, led by their leader and Independent legislator Sheikh Abdur Rashid, had staged a sit-in against the killing of a protester in Wednesday’s police firing in neighbouring Naina village.

Witnesses said the two sides exchanged blows before the police disengaged them.

During the scuffle, the AIP workers got the better of BJP activists when they tried to catch hold of Mr Rashid during his protest dharna outside the office of Pulwama’s deputy commissioner.

The trouble started when the BJP activists, led by local leader Shabir Ahmed, objected to the AIP activists holding a banner which had “Mr Modi... stop terrorising Muslims” written and drops of blood drawn on it and their chanting anti-Prime Minister slogans.

The BJP activists accused Mr Rashid, also known as Engineer Rashid, of being an agent of Pakistan.

BJP media in-charge Kashmir Altaf Thakur accused Mr Rashid and his partymen of assaulting the BJP workers and demanded an FIR be registered against the Independent MLA for it and for indulging in what he alleged was character assassination of the PM.

However, the AIP strongly denied the charge and said while its workers, led by Mr Rashid, were sitting outside the DC’s office to peacefully protest against the “brutal killing” of the Pulwama youth, BJP workers arrived and asked them to end the protest, leading to an altercation.

It added that it was the local residents who chased away the BJP activists.