New Delhi: The Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi resumed Sunday after a day-long break from Hiranagar in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district amid heightened security in the wake of twin blasts in Jammu, as reported by the news agency PTI. The Yatra started at 7 AM according to the schedule from Hiranagar near the International Border along the Jammu-Pathankot highway which was sealed by police and other security forces.
Rahul Gandhi entered Samba district’s Tapyal-Gagwal after crossing the Londi checkpoint at around 8 am and was greeted by enthusiastic workers and supporters waiting on both sides of the road, PTI reported. He was accompanied by J-K Pradesh Congress chief Vikar Rasool Wani, working president Raman Bhalla and hundreds of volunteers carrying the tricolour.
After covering about 25 km distance, the march will have a night halt at Chak Nanak before restarting from Samba’s Vijaypur for Jammu, where it will reach on Monday.
Adequate security arrangements are in place for Gandhi with police, CRPF, and other security agencies keeping a tight vigil to ensure a peaceful march, officials said as reported by PTI.
Security has been further beefed up across Jammu and Kashmir in the wake of twin bomb blasts in the Narwal area on the outskirts of Jammu city on Saturday, which left nine people injured.
Police suspect that IEDs were used to carry out the twin explosions in an SUV parked in a repair shop and a vehicle at a nearby junkyard in Transport Nagar area of Narwal, as reported by PTI.
The terror attack comes at a time when security agencies in the region are on high alert in the wake of the Yatra of the Congress and the upcoming Republic Day celebrations. The march started from Kanyakumari on September 7 and entered Jammu and Kashmir from Punjab on Thursday. The yatra is scheduled to end in Srinagar on January 30 with the hoisting of the national flag at Congress headquarters by Gandhi.