Srinagar/July,5: : Over 100 activists of Awami Itehad Party (AIP) were taken into preventive custody after they hit the streets in protest against the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) in Jammu and Kashmir.
Led by AIP chief Sheikh Abdul Rashid, MLA from Langate constituency, hundreds of activists appeared near the Civil Secretariat, seat of the Government, where Legislature complex is also located.
Raising slogans against the PDP-BJP coalition Government for trying to erode the financial and political autonomy of the state by implementing GST, the demonstrators tried to march towards the main gate of the secretariat.
However, large number of security forces and state police personnel already deployed in the area immediately swung into action and stopped them.
A spokesman for the AIP said that Mr Rashid was physically lift from the area by police and later taken inside the complex. However, it was not immediately clear whether he was released and allowed to participate in the debate in the Legislative Assembly on GST.
Mr Rashid also clashed with the BJP leaders in the House yesterday and said that BJP MLAs would also face similar treatment like Syama Prasad Mookerjee, who died in prison in Srinagar in 1953 when he entered the state without “Permit”.
BJP lawmakers demanded action against Mr Rashid and raised the issue again in the House.
