Shiv Sena protests against prime minister's statement on autonomy for J&K

Protesting prime minister Manmohan Singh's statement on considering autonomy for Jammu and Kashmir, Shiv Sena burnt an effigy of UPA government here today.

Led by the party state unit chief Ashok Gupta, over 300 Sena activists took out a protest rally and paraded through market places of the city shouting anti-UPA slogans.

The protesters later gathered at Rani Park and burnt an effigy of the UPA government amid sloganeering against the prime minister's statement on considering autonomy for the state.

"The prime minister has only given boost to the separatists and stone pelters and demoralised security forces and police, who are injured in stone pelting," Gupta told reporters.

In a major initiative to deal with the unrest in Kashmir, Manmohan Singh had yesterday said that the Centre was willing to consider autonomy for the state within the ambit of the Constitution.