Former president of the Indian National Congress party, Rahul Gandhi, on Sunday said that he had experienced first-hand “the draconian administration and brute force unleashed on the Jammu & Kashmir people” as he shared his encounter at the Srinagar airport which had taken place a day earlier. Tweeting about his disturbing experience – when he, along with a delegation of India’s opposition parties, was prevented from entering the city by the Indian-held Kashmir (IHK) administration – the Congress leader wrote, “It’s been 20 days since the people of Jammu & Kashmir had their freedom and civil liberties curtailed. Leaders of the Opposition and the Press got a taste of the draconian administration and brute force unleashed on the people of J&K when we tried to visit Srinagar yesterday.” The opposition leaders had intended to visit Kashmir to assess the situation in the wake of the BJP government’s decision to revoke the occupied region’s special autonomy. According to Reuters, the local administration of Jammu and Kashmir would not allow the opposition members to leave the airport in Srinagar and had booked a return flight to New Delhi for them a few hours after they landed. Around eight senior leaders from several parties including the Congress, Communist Party of India and All India Trinamool Congress had boarded the flight from New Delhi. The Congress had tweeted that the visit led by Gandhi was “an attempt to review the reality in the region after the abrogation of Article 370”. Following the incident, the party condemned the BJP government’s move to prevent opposition leaders from visiting IHK, asking on Twitter why the delegation was sent back if, according to the government, the situation in the valley was “normal”. “What is the Modi govt trying to hide?” it had further questioned.