As many as 20 flags were unfurled as Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Gilani addressed supporters after Friday prayers in Tral area of Pulwama.
Gilani recently returned to the valley from New Delhi after spending three months in the Indian capital.
Angered by the incident National Conference leader Omar Abdullah hit out at the Bharitiya Janata Party (BJP), an ally of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Kashmir, for maintaining silence over the issue.
Read: Pakistan condemns India's 'brutal' use of force against Kashmiris
Imagine what @BJP4India would have said if as CM I'd been sitting in Bombay surrounded by movie stars while Pak flags are waved in Kashmir.
— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) May 1, 2015
The former chief minister was apparently referring to the waving of the flag at a time when the incumbent Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed met Bollywood stars in Mumbai, inviting them to shoot movies in the disputed valley.
Last month, Hurriyat leader Masarat Alam was arrested after his supporters waved green flags and raised pro-Pakistan slogans at a rally in Srinagar. The rally had been organised to welcome Gilani, their ideological mentor.
Subsequently, the Hurriyat leader was put under house arrest to stop him from leading a march to Tral, which had been tense since a young man was killed by Indian forces.
Moreover, during the growing outrage, Indian government had ordered the ruling regime of Jammu and Kashmir to take “immediate and stringent” action.
Alam was booked under the Public Safety Act, which allowed the state to keep him behind bars for two years without any sort of trial.
Read: Hurriyat leader waves Pakistani flag at Indian Kashmir rally
He was released a month About a month later, was arrested again. The 45-year-old, who had already served a jail sentence of five years, for organising stone-throwing protests in the valley in 2010, subsequent police firing resulted in the deaths of 100 people.
The story originally appeared on NDTV
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