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The Jammu and Kashmir government is likely to disallow the Bharatiya Janata Party yatra to Srinagar to hoist the national flag at Lal Chowk on Republic Day.
Highly placed sources here said that the state government has decided to halt the yatra by the youth wing of the BJP in Jammu and not to allow it to proceed to Srinagar.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has been urging the BJP to desist from its programme of hoisting the tri-colour in the city centre Lal Chowk as it may lead to violence.
The chief minister has been for the past one week reviewing the security arrangements with top security force officers in Jammu. He chaired the unified headquarters meeting in Jammu the other day which was attended by top civil, army, paramilitary and police officers.
The BJP has, however, rejected the pleas of the chief minister and announced that it would go ahead with the yatra which started from Kolkata early this month and to hoist the national flag in Lal Chowk.
The party had earlier in 1992 also hoisted the national flag at the same venue when militancy in Kashmir was at its peak.
The pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik has called for Lal Chowk march on January 26.
The moderate All Parties Hurriyat Conference headed by Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq has lent its support to the call. Ends