SRINAGAR: The Bharat Jodo march, led by Rahul Gandhi, was halted on Friday near Qazigund, the valley's gateway, after the Congress accused the Jammu and Kashmir administration of breach of security and crowd mishandling.
AICC in-charge Rajni Patil tweeted that the JK administration "failed to provide protection to Shri Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra. "Security issues reveal the UT administration's unfair and unprepared approach," Patil added.
After reaching Qazigund, Gandhi began walking towards Vessu in South Kashmir, as planned, but Congress members discovered that the outer barrier, which was to be handled by Jammu and Kashmir police, had vanished, according to Congress leaders.
Gandhi was supposed to walk 11 kilometres on Friday but had to cancel after only 500 metres, according to reports. "We had to momentarily halt the yatra due to crowd mismanagement along the yatra route sanctioned by the security apparatus," a senior congress leader said.
He said that while people had flocked to show their support for Rahul Gandhi, there were concerns about his safety since "people are getting too close to him." However, due to security mismanagement, Rahul's security did not allow him to walk and he rode in his car to the location of the march's night halt at Khanabal, said the Congress leader.
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