Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation

25 January, 2011

Me (Shikha Rai, Mahila Morcha President,Delhi) and Shri. R.P Singh (Seh Prabhari J&K, BJP) reached Srinagar with 3 other BJP local representatives. But the moment we landed at the airport the BJP representatives were arrested. We somehow managed to reach our hotel “Broadway” situated at Maulana Azad Road.

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Once we reached the hotel we frantically started coordinating with the other BJP Yuva Morcha representatives. We wanted to get hold of the Indian flag as we were not allowed to carry any with us. The local representatives provided us with the flag.

The next morning we reached Lal Chowk which was cordoned off uptill 2 kms. Some of our representatives were arrested on the previous night. In the morning one of our representatives who went out for a stroll was beaten up by the police. We thought it would be safe to wait till the program at Bakshi stadium to be over.

The roads bore a deserted look. I along with Shri R.P Singh hired a local cab from our hotel. On the way we were frisked by the police and we had to lie saying that we were traveling to our relatives staying in Gulmarg. But unfortunately due to the security we had to return back to the hotel. We came back and saw all the action on TV as we had lost touch with other members, probably the phone network were deliberately jammed.

We planned to take the Shikara and travel by the lake instead of the road to reach Lal Chawk .There we were accompanied by our 9 representatives from Rajasthan who had reached Srinagar that morning. We were in midst of heavy patrolling with the approaching sunset which made us pace up our brave act to hoist our national flag. We carefully and secretly kept coordinating with each other over the phone.

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We wanted the media to be there to cover our act of courage and had even informed one local media person. But at the last moment he backed off with an absurd excuse saying he’s out of reel. But one of our loyal correspondents from times was able to capture our brave act.
I had a flag shoved inside my pocket all the 9 representatives came along and we all together with the Indian national flag in our hands moved forward shouting ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’ and singing “Vante Mataram”. Seeing the commotion the police came into action, they pushed us all inside the jeeps and took us to Munshibagh police station. There we were locked in a small room. They started interrogating us.

In the mean time I was constantly trying to get in touch with our party members in Delhi. When suddenly the station in-charge came and snatched away my phone. He started abusing me and slapped me hard. I went through the torture of character assassination and my dignity of being a lady was shattered.

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After that they all assaulted and abused us. The men were beaten up by rods, gun butts, boots etc.All this was being captured on the camera, the men were striped of clothes and made to kneel down with constant blows of rod. Vinod Rawat, R.P Singh, Virendra Khichi and Vijay Upadhyay got serious injuries. This torture gave the police sadistic pleasure. We were treated like terrorists. They said that BJP is a peace breaker and is anti-Kashmir; Their language was Anti-India.they displayed their revengeful attitude towards the BJP and our national flag saying that “Have you forgotten what happened at Godhra, we would set ablaze inside the station only”, “How much money did you get from the party for coming here?”, “For how long will you keep Kashmir in Chains.” This harrowing ordeal came to halt only after I told them that I was an advocate and they moved back I was sent back to the hotel but the others were still kept captive and tortured. Who were later shoved in the criminal cell with hard core criminals and for the name of fake interrogation they were badly abused.

Also one of our candidates Halima Akhtar who fought the elections from Udi district, Srinagar was arrested 4 days prior republic day. She was so badly assaulted that she had burn marks on her body.