Jammu incidents: Advani lodges protest with PM

NEW DELHI: Unhappy over the treatment meted out to party colleagues Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley at Jammu airport, senior BJP leader L K Advani talked to PM Manmohan Singh to lodge a protest over the developments which had "never happened" earlier.

"I talked to the Prime Minister to register protest over the way authorities prevented Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, both Leaders of Opposition in two Houses of Parliament, from entering Jammu and threatened to deport them back to Delhi," Advani said.

While expressing anguish, the Chairman of BJP Parliamentary Party told Singh that such developments had "never happened earlier".

Advani said Swaraj and Jaitley had refused to return to Delhi.

Swaraj and Jaitley, who went to Jammu this afternoon to join the party's Ekta Yatra, were prohibited from coming out of the airport, leading to a stand-off.

On being told by the authorities that prohibitory orders under Section 144 was in force, Swaraj and Jaitley asked them to arrest them rather than sending back to Delhi, Advani said.

Asked whether Singh had given any assurance to him, Advani said, "I did not call to seek any assurance but just to register my protest at the treatment meted out to our two senior leaders."