A scuffle broke out in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly on Thursday after independent MLA Khursheed Ahmad Sheikh, the brother of jailed Baramulla MP Engineer Rashid, unfurled a banner demanding that Article 370 of the Constitution be restored and all political prisoners be released, reported The Indian Express.

Legislators from the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party stormed the Well of the House and tried to snatch the banner away as People’s Conference leader Sajad Lone and Peoples Democratic Party leader Waheed Ur Rehman Para joined the fray in support of Khursheed.

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As soon as the session began on Thursday, BJP legislators created an uproar over the passage of a resolution on Wednesday calling for the restoration of Article 370, India Today reported. Article 370, which gave special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, was abrogated by the Union government in August 2019.

The resolution in the Assembly was moved by National Conference leader and Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Kumar Chowdhary.

Peoples Democratic Party MLA Waheed-ur-Rehman Para had introduced a similar resolution in the House on Monday.

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The first Assembly session of the Union territory began on Monday.

The recent Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir were the first in 10 years, and the first since the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019.

On October 16, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah took oath as the chief minister after his party won the Assembly election in alliance with the Congress and Communist Party of India (Marxist).


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