KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
The attendance at Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, rally was bigger than the number of persons who attended a rally which was addressed by the then PM of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee at the same venue of SK Cricket Stadium in Srinagar.
Sources in the security apparatus in J&K said that it was over 30000 people who attended Saturday’s rally in which PM Modi announced an economic package of Rs 80000 Crore while Rs 34000 Crore were ear marked for roads of J&K.
In 2004, when Vajpayee addressed people in the stadium, he initiated a dialogue process with Hurriyat leaders while extending ‘hand of friendship with Pakistan’.
A Srinagar based journalist who covered Vajpayee rally said, “that time assembling people was a big task. There were security issues as it was ‘transition phase’ from violence hit period.” “However,” he said, “managing a crowd that time was something impossible which Mufti did.”
The journalist was quick to add, “this time the crowd was even bigger.”
