By IANS,
Jammu : Several Hindu groups and student organisations held demonstrations here Wednesday, warning the Jammu and Kashmir government against any move to cancel the land allotment to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB)
They also protested against Kashmir-based mainstream as well as separatist political groups for what they called their “malicious, communal and fascist approach” toward the ongoing Amarnath pilgrimage.
Activists from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Bajrang Dal and Shiv Sena held protest demonstrations at least two dozen places in Jammu.
VHP and Shiv Sena have given a shutdown call for Thursday to give momentum to their agitation against what they said was a “crude attempt to sabotage the Amarnath pilgrimage by Islamic fundamentalists”.
Activists of the Jammu and Kashmir Panthers Students Union, Jammu Joint Students Federation (JJSF) and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) held protests in the university campus here, raising slogans against “communal Kashmiri politicians”.
Students also burnt effigies of former chief ministers Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, Farooq Abdullah and Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussain Baig.
Rajinder Singh, a leader of the JJSF, while addressing the protesters alleged: “Islamic fundamentalists in the Kashmir Valley’s political groups had launched a campaign against the Amarnath pilgrime.”
The state government in March allotted 39.88 hectares of forest land at Baltal in Ganderbal district to the SASB, which manages the Hindu vace shrine of Amarnath. Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad Wednesday clarified that it was merely diversion of land, not allotment, and the board was not allowed to put up permanent structures on it.