New Delhi: Sending out a strong warning to separatist leaders in Kashmir, Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday said the Centre would not tolerate anyone raising slogans like 'Pakistan zindabad' on Indian soil. Singh's statement came after separatist leader Masarat Alam and his supporters waved Pakistan flags on Wednesday to greet Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani as he arrived in Srinagar. They also shouted pro-Pakistan slogans.
Though Alam later claimed that he did not wave any Pakistani flag, he also added that it was not a new phenomenon. "Hurriyat did not wave Pakistani flag but some boys did it. This is nothing new, it has happened earlier as well," Alam said.
While Centre has asked the Jammu & Kashmir government to take strict action, Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed is non-committal on the issue. Seeking strict action against anti-India activities, Singh told Sayeed that there can be no compromise on issues of national security. Mufti has been advised to take strong measures to prevent a repeat of what happened.
BJP, the alliance partner of PDP in J&K, reacted sharply with Minister of State for Home Kiran Rijiju saying that the state government had been asked to act against those who had broken the law.
BJP said Alam should be arrested or put under house arrest otherwise the party will not attend the cabinet meeting.
Senior BJP leader Ram Madhav also asserted BJP's tough stand on the issue. "We have acted tough. We will not tolerate such pro Pakistani slogans. An FIR has been registered against Masarat. He is likely to be arrested soon. It is not the question of how long we will tolerate. But we have given a tough message to state government to take action immediately," he said.
Alam was the mastermind behind the 2008 and 2010 protests and stone-pelting incidents in which over 100 people most of them teenage boys lost their lives. He was later arrested on the orders of the then Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah.
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