Omar and NC leaders slip through barricades, offer tributes to martyrs in Srinagar

Srinagar: A day after being locked indoors, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and several National Conference leaders on Monday slipped through security barricades to pay tributes to July 13 martyrs at Naqshband Sahib graveyard in Old City.

Abdullah lambasted the Lieutenant Governor and the police for trying to stop him and his entourage from entering the martyrs' graveyard.

"It is sad that on the instructions of the people who claim that their responsibility is the security and law and order, we were not allowed to offer 'fateha' here. We were kept in house arrest (on Sunday). When gates opened, I expressed to the control room my desire to offer fateha. Within minutes, bunkers were put up and they were not removed late into the night," Abdullah told reporters after paying tributes at the graveyard.