[Reader-list] Separatists lied about blockade: Jaitley

[Aditya Raj Kaul]

*Separatists lied about blockade: Jaitley*

New Delhi (PTI): The BJP has accused the separatists in Jammu and Kashmir of
spreading false propaganda about the highway connecting Srinagar and Jammu
being blocked due to the agitation over the Amarnath land issue and attacked
the government for "not countering" these claims.

Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley claimed that there was no such "blockade" in
the state as claimed by the separatists but admitted there was "disruption"
on the Highway for a day.

"The separatists lied to the whole country, to the whole world saying that
Hindu colonalisation will come up in the Valley...The separatists lied to
the world saying there is an economic blockade.

"There was nobody in the valley, not even the state government or the
Central government which countered that propoganda," Jaitely told Karan
Thapar in "Devil's Advocate" programme of CNN-IBN.

Noting that BJP was the only party which countered the separtists' claim, he
said, "We are the ones who are saying that the land transfer is pursuant to
a direction of the High Court and why it should be implemented."

However, Jaitley said there were protests in Jammu and Punjab which led to
the disruption of traffic but claimed it was not a blockade. "Any stoppage
of traffic because of protest is not a blockade," he said.

The BJP leadership and senior leaders of the Punjab government personally
intervened and said protest on any road, but not on national highway, he
added