Srinagar- Wearing Modi masks and chanting his name, thousands of people from across Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday reached Srinagar’s Bakshi Stadium here to attend Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally.
In his first visit to Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370, Modi unveiled multiple development projects worth more than Rs 6,400 crore, addressed a public meeting, and participated in the ‘Viksit Bharat, Viksit Jammu Kashmir’ programme at the stadium.
Hundreds of BJP supporters, wearing tri coloured turbans, also reached the venue while security personnel had a tough time managing the crowd.
Officials said tight security arrangements were put in place but there were no restrictions on the movement of people.
Life was normal across the Kashmir valley and most of the shops and other business establishments were open here, the officials said.
They said there were no restrictions on the movement of the people in any part of the valley, except for traffic diversions around the venue of the PM’s rally.
“People were allowed to move and there were no restrictions anywhere in Kashmir. The Traffic Police had announced some diversions for traffic around the venue, but other than that, there were no restrictions on the movement of the people,” they added.
Traffic movement on the city’s Jehangir Chowk to Rambagh and Rajbagh to LD Hospital-Tulsi Bagh route was restricted from 4 am to 7 pm given the VVIP visit, the officials said.
They said the Jahangir Chowk-Solina-Ram Bagh stretch also remained restricted for the civilian traffic movement.
Similarly, Raj Bagh-LD Hospital-Tulsi Bagh besides Gupkar Road up to the All India Radio Srinagar office was also restricted for civilian traffic movement.
Stringent security arrangements were put in place to ensure an incident-free visit, they said.
Security personnel were deployed in large numbers along the routes to be taken by Modi in Srinagar while barricades were set up at several places, they said.
Drones and CCTV cameras were also used for surveillance while foot patrolling by the security forces were intensified in a two-kilometre radius around the venue, officials said.
Marine commandos were deployed in Jhelum River and Dal Lake to prevent the use of the water bodies for any subversive activities, the officials said.
Several schools in Srinagar were closed for two days, while board examinations scheduled to be held on Thursday were postponed till next month.
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