Union Home Minister Amit Shah is on a three-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir. (File)
Mobile internet has been suspended in parts of Jammu, where a top police officer was murdered last night, and neighbouring Rajouri district, just ahead of Union Home Minister Amit Shah's rally. The Jammu and Kashmir administration has cited potential “misuse by miscreants” for the suspension until 7 pm today.
Amit Shah arrived in Jammu late last evening, on a day when the UT's Director General of Police (DGP) in charge of prisons, Hemant Lohia, was murdered allegedly by his house help. Police have so far found no terror link to this murder.
There have, however, been two terrorist attacks in Jammu and Kashmir over the past week.
Before a security review meet in Srinagar tomorrow, Mr Shah is to address a rally in Rajouri district of Jammu region today, where he is expected to announce Scheduled Tribe (ST) status for the Pahari community in the union territory. His other rally, tomorrow, is in Baramulla town of north Kashmir.
BJP supporters gather for a rally to be addressed by Amit Shah in Rajouri.
Over the ST status, there have been protests by other communities — they either want it too, or have it already but resent that another community gets a share in the quota for education and jobs.
Representatives of Gujjar and Bakerwal tribes last evening met Amit Shah, whose ministry runs the administration as the UT remains under central rule since August 5, 2019.
Amit Shah being welcomed by Ravinder Raina, chief if the BJP's Jammu and Kashmir unit, on Monday.
The visit is significant for the BJP, too, because the UT may witness elections in another few months, more than three years after the state was divided into two UTs — the other being Ladakh — as Article 370, which gave it special status, was hollowed out.
People's Democratic Party leader Mehbooba Mufti, a former Chief Minister, accused the BJP of dividing communities by using reservation.