JAMMU/NEW DELHI, Jan 24 � Senior BJP leaders Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and Ananth Kumar were stopped at Jammu airport today amid high drama ahead of the party�s move to hoist the tricolour at Lal Chowk in Srinagar on Republic Day, triggering vehement protests, reports PTI.
The three leaders, who arrived here to throw their weight behind the party�s controversial Ekta Yatra, were asked to return to Delhi which they refused as hundreds of BJP workers outside the airport shouted slogans and waved flags.
The BJP is in no mood to back off from its decision to hoist the Tricolour at Lal Chowk in Srinagar on Republic Day at the end of the Ekta Yatra.
Both the Centre and the Omar Abdullah Government have asked the BJP not to precipitate the situation in the State. Rejecting it, the BJP charged them with �surrendering� to separatists who have vowed not to allow the Tricolour to be hoisted on January 26 at Lal Chowk.
The leaders, who came on a chartered flight from New Delhi this afternoon, were not allowed to move out as the authorities imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC after over 1,000 BJP workers assembled outside the airport to welcome them.
Protesting against the State Government�s actions, the BJP leaders sat on a dharna inside the airport while outside, party activists raised slogans against the Omar Abdullah Government and blocked the road next to the building.
