Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday claimed that the situation in Jammu and Kashmir was not normal and that is why the government was not allowing the opposition leaders to visit the state. He was part of an all-party delegation that had gone to J&K to see if everything was fine on the ground. However, they were stopped at Srinagar airport and sent back.

“Some days ago I was invited by Governor to visit Jammu and Kashmir. I accepted the invitation. We wanted to get a sense of what people are going through, but we weren’t allowed beyond the airport. Press people with us were mishandled, beaten. It’s clear that the situation in J&K isn’t normal,” ANI quoted Rahul Gandhi as saying after he arrived in Delhi.

Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said that the situation in J&K was terrifying. “The stories we heard from the passengers of Kashmir present in our flight, would bring tears even to a stone,” he added.

Speaking on today’s development, Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik said that Rahul Gandhi went there to aggravate the situation. “There is no need for him now, he was needed when his colleague was speaking in the Parliament. If he wants to aggravate the situation and come here to repeat the lie he told in Delhi, it is not good,” he added.

Malik said that the opposition leaders were doing politics. “I had invited him out of goodwill but he started doing politics, it was nothing but a political action by these people. Parties should keep in mind the national interest at these times,” he added. The opposition leaders called their detention “undemocratic and unconstitutional”.

Jammu and Kashmir is under curfew for over three weeks in the wake of abrogation of special status to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370.