Amit Shah’s visit postponed, will arrive in J&K on October 4

Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s proposed visit to Jammu and Kashmir, scheduled to begin from September 30, has been postponed and he will now be arriving in the region on October 4.

According to the earlier programme, Shah was to arrive in Jammu on September 30, and was scheduled to visit the Mata Vaishno Devi shrine for darshan on the same day. However, a BJP leader, privy to the developments, said the Home Minister will arrive in the union territory on October 4, as he has some engagements in New Delhi.

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“Now Shah will arrive on October 4 on a two-day J&K visit during which he will address a rally in Rajouri district in Jammu and north Kashmir’s Baramulla district,” the BJP leader said, adding that the Home Minister is likely to make announcements about reservations for the Pahari-speaking community.

This will be Shah’s second visit to the union territory since the abrogation of the erstwhile state’s special status under Article 370 in August 2019. Last year in October, he visited Kashmir in the wake of rising attacks on minority community members by the militants in the valley.

The Home Minister is also scheduled to lay the foundation stone for a cancer hospital, being constructed by the Jammu and Kashmir Waqf Board, in the valley.

The visit of Shah assumes significance as Assembly polls in the UT may be held in April-May next year. The J & K government has already said that almost all preparations have been made for the elections and it was up to the Election Commission to decide the date for the polls.