Attempt to cross into occupied Kashmir

Police detained senior Hindu nationalist politicians, including the leader of the opposition, on Tuesday over an attempt to cross into occupied Kashmir to hold a rally. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had planned to pour young Hindu volunteers into the sensitive Muslim-majority region for India's Republic Day on Wednesday and raise the national flag in occupied Srinagar.
-- Indian leaders held to stop BJP rally Leader of the parliamentary opposition Sushma Swaraj was among those detained, in addition to several BJP workers who were loaded into police buses. "What have we done wrong that they should arrest us? We have come here in a peaceful manner," Swaraj told reporters. "We will definitely raise the flag (in Srinagar). We are not leaving before the evening of the 26th." Anurag Thakur, president of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, the BJP's youth wing, addressed the 3,000-strong crowd who were turned back by police at the Lakhanpur bridge into Kashmir state. "We are being arrested for raising the flag. We are not afraid of anyone," he said.
Authorities blocked road links between occupied Kashmir and neighbouring states as BJP gathered on the state border, shouting nationalist slogans and waving the Indian flag in protest against the police blockade. Home Minister P. Chidambaram has appealed to the BJP to respect the orders of the Kashmir state government and call off the flag-hoisting plan. Pro-independence Kashmiris have also vowed to protest on Republic Day, raising fears of a return to violence after massive anti-India protests last year in which at least 100 protesters were killed.