Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will visit Srinagar on Saturday with a delegation of 10 Opposition party leaders, reported PTI. Among the parties that will be part of the delegation are the Congress, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Nationalist Congress Party, Trinamool Congress and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.

Gandhi had last week accepted Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik’s invitation to visit the state to understand the situation there in the aftermath of the revocation of special status under Article 370. The Congress leader had claimed that there had been much violence in the state.

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However, Malik had said on August 14 that a decision on Gandhi’s visit will be taken “at a convenient time”. Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad was twice stopped from entering Jammu and Kashmir and sent back to New Delhi.

The Jammu and Kashmir administration has not allowed the entry of any politician into Kashmir since August 5, when the special status was rescinded.

On Friday, the Department of Information and Public Relations of Jammu and Kashmir asked the politicians not to visit Srinagar. “At a time when the government is trying to protect the people of Jammu & Kashmir from the threat of cross border terrorism and attacks by militants and separatists and gradually trying to restore public order by controlling miscreants and mischief mongers, attempts should not be made by senior political leaders to disturb the gradual restoration of normal life,” the department tweeted. “Political leaders are requested to cooperate and not visit Srinagar as they would be putting other people to inconvenience.”

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They would be violating restrictions that are still there in many areas, the department said. “Senior leaders should understand that top priority would be given to maintaining peace, order and preventing loss of human lives,” it added.

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