Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday said he had to cancel his walk for the day because police arrangements by the Jammu and Kashmir administration "unfortunately completely collapsed".
Gandhi, who began his yatra from Banihal in the Jammu region, crossed the Jawahar tunnel into the Valley in Qazigund in a bulletproof vehicle but could walk for barely 500 metres after that. He was asked by his security team to stop given the absence of police personnel to manage the large crowd that had gathered to receive him.
"Police personnel who were supposed to manage the crowd were nowhere to be seen," the former Congress president told reporters here in a brief statement.
He was supposed to walk 11 km to Vessu before halting for the night at the Khanabal dak bungalow in Anantnag district.
"It's the Jammu and Kashmir administration's responsibility to provide security... I hope security will now be ensured for remaining days of the yatra. I don't know why it happened but tomorrow and day after tomorrow it should not happen," Gandhi said in the unscheduled meeting with reporters.
However, he did not take any questions, saying that interaction would be reserved for Sunday.
"I had to call off my walk because I can't go against my security people," the Congress leader, who started his Bharat Jodo Yatra in Kanyakumari in September and ends it in Srinagar on January 30, said.
Terming the incident a "big security lapse", his party colleague Jairam Ramesh said Gandhi's security team is holding discussions with the Jammu and Kashmir administration to ensure that everything goes off smoothly for the next few days.
"Politics has its place but by playing with Rahul Gandhi's security in Jammu and Kashmir, the government has stooped to its lowest level," the Congress general secretary added in a tweet in Hindi.
India, he said, has already lost Indira Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and any government or administration should desist from playing politics on such issues.
Several party leaders echoed his concern, accusing the government of withdrawing security personnel around Gandhi and demanding action against those responsible for the alleged breach.
"Who ordered this?" asked AICC general secretary K C Venugopal.
"The authorities responsible must answer for this lapse and take appropriate steps to prevent such incidents in future," he said on Twitter
Jammu and Kashmir's AICC in-charge Rajni Patil said "the security lapses indicate the unfair and unprepared attitude of the UT administration".
"Due to security reasons, we had to stop the yatra temporarily as there was crowd mismanagement along the yatra route approved by the security apparatus," a senior Congress leader said.
Gandhi's security insisted that he stop the walk immediately and he drove instead to the guesthouse in Khanabal.
The morning started early with National Conference leader and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah joining Gandhi for the walk. Both leaders were dressed in similar white T-shirts in the 7 degrees Celsius chill.
Gandhi's white T-shirt look, even in north India's severe winter days, has been the subject of much debate and discussion.
They had walked for about three kilometres in the morning and drove through the 2.85 km Jawahar tunnel. After crossing the tunnel, party leaders accompanying Gandhi found there were no policeman to provide security at the scheduled halt.
Gandhi's security team did not allow him to step out of the car.
The Congress leader will resume his journey on Saturday from Awantipora, 33 km from Srinagar.
Omar Abdullah alleges security lapse
National Conference leader Omar Abdullah also alleged that the outer ring of the security cordon maintained by Jammu and Kashmir Police "simply vanished" as soon as the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra entered the Kashmir Valley.
"I'm witness to this. The outer ring of the cordon which was maintained by the Jammu and Kashmir police simply vanished within minutes of Rahul Gandhi starting to walk," Abdullah said in a tweet.
"We had just crossed into Kashmir from Jammu and were looking forward to the 11-km walk but unfortunately it had to be cancelled," he said.
'No security lapse'
However, Jammu and Kashmir Additional DGP Vijay Kumar alleged that there was no security lapse at Bharat Jodo Yatra. "Organisers did not inform us about the large crowd joining the march from Banihal," Kumar said.
(with PTI inputs)
