Jammu: The Jammu and Kashmir unit of the Congress on Sunday launched a chain hunger strike in Jammu under its ‘Hamari Riyasat Hamara Haq’ campaign, demanding the restoration of statehood to the Union Territory.
Led by Pradesh Congress Committee president Tariq Hameed Karra, dozens of party leaders and workers — including former ministers and legislators — gathered near the statue of the last Dogra ruler, Maharaja Hari Singh, at Tawi bridge to begin the protest. Karra said the strike, originally scheduled to start in both Jammu and Srinagar on Saturday, was delayed in Jammu by a day due to Raksha Bandhan.
The protest venue will be shifted to Shaheed Chowk near the party headquarters after the administration denied permission to set up a large tent at the original site. The hunger strike, which began in Srinagar on August 9, will run till August 21, excluding August 15 and 16.
Prominent participants include working president Raman Bhalla, former ministers Mula Ram, Choudhary Lal Singh, Yogesh Sawhney, Ghulam Mohammad Saroori, AICC secretary Mohd Shahnawaz Choudhary, chief spokesperson Ravinder Sharma, MLA Iftikar Ahmed, and DDC member T S Tony.
Karra said the action is part of the Congress’s six-month-long campaign across all 20 districts of J&K to “awaken this blind, deaf and dumb government.” He added that the party recently held marches in Srinagar and Jammu, followed by a ‘Delhi Chalo’ call, and launched an outreach drive from August 1–5 to mobilise civil society, traders, and transporters. On August 5, the sixth anniversary of J&K’s downgrade was marked as a “black day” across the UT.
He also noted that Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and LoP Rahul Gandhi had jointly written to the prime minister ahead of the Monsoon session, reminding the Centre of its promise to restore J&K’s statehood.
