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National Conference leader Omar Abdullah Friday alleged that the outer ring of security cordon maintained by Jammu and Kashmir Police "simply vanished" as soon as the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra entered the Kashmir Valley.
The march was stopped on Friday near Qazigund, the gateway to the valley, after the Congress alleged breach of security and mismanagement of crowd by the Jammu and Kashmir administration.
"I'm witness to this. The outer ring of the cordon which was maintained by the Jammu and Kashmir police simply vanished within minutes of Rahul Gandhi starting to walk," Abdullah said in a tweet.
"We had just crossed into Kashmir from Jammu and were looking forward to the 11-km walk but unfortunately it had to be cancelled," he said.
Gandhi, after reaching Qazigund, started to walk towards Vessu in South Kashmir according to plan but Congress workers suddenly found that the outer cordon, which was to be managed by the Jammu and Kashmir police, had disappeared, the party's leaders alleged.
Gandhi was scheduled to walk 11 km on Friday but had to call off after he barely walked 500 metres, they claimed.
"Due to security reasons, we had to stop the yatra temporarily as there was crowd mismanagement along the yatra route approved by the security apparatus," a senior congress leader claimed.
Gandhi, who started his Bharat Jodo Yatra in Kanyakumari in September and ends it in Srinagar on January 30, said, "It's the Jammu and Kashmir administration's responsibility to provide security... I hope security will now be ensured for the remaining days of the yatra."
"I had to call off my walk because I can't go against my security people," the Congress leader said.
His party colleague Jairam Ramesh added that Gandhi's security team is holding discussions with the Jammu and Kashmir administration to ensure that everything goes off smoothly for the next few days.
Srinagar, Jan. 27 (PTI)