Jhanvi Behal who vowed to unfurl tricolour at Lal Chowk turned back

SRINAGAR: A 15-year-old girl from Ludhiana, who publicly vowed to hoist the national flag at the historic Lal Chowk here and had dared the separatists to stop her, was today turned back by authorities from Srinagar International Airport.

Jhanvi Behal accompanied by 30 others arrived at the airport but all of them were sent back, a police official said, without assigning any reason for the step.

Behal had grabbed the headlines earlier this year by challenging JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar to a debate on nationalism.

The police official said while six persons including Behal had come in a flight from Chandigarh, 25 others had arrived here in another flight from Delhi.

"All of them were sent back by the same flight in which they came," the official said.

After the outbreak of violent protests in Kashmir following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, Behal gave an online statement expressing her intention to unfurl the natinal flag at Lal Chowk.

"I would hoist the tricolour at Lal Chowk in Srinagar on August 15 because that is a place where the national flag was insulted.

"I challenge all those, including the separatists and the Pakistanis, to stop me if they can," she had said on July 23.