The Congress on Friday put the Bharat Jodo Yatra on hold in Jammu and Kashmir alleging breach of security and mismanagement of crowd by the Union Territory administration, PTI reported.

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, who was in Qazigund, was supposed to walk 11 kilometres in the Valley on Friday but could barely cover a kilometre before his security team asked him to stop, saying that there were no police personnel to manage the large crowd that had gathered to receive him.

“Police arrangement completely collapsed and police personnel who were supposed to manage the crowd were nowhere to be seen,” Gandhi said at a press conference. “I hope security will now be ensured for remaining days of the yatra. I don’t know why it happened but tomorrow and day after tomorrow it should not happen.”

National Conference leader Omar Abdullah, who was walking with Gandhi on Friday, also said that the outer ring of security cordon maintained by Jammu and Kashmir Police “simply vanished” as Gandhi entered the Kashmir Valley.

The police have denied any lapse in security arrangements and blamed the organisers for not informing them that a crowd would join the march as it entered the Kashmir Valley.

“Only authorised persons as identified by organisers and frisked crowd was allowed inside towards the route of Yatra,” the Kashmir Zone Police said in a series of tweets.

They said that full security arrangements had been made for the Yatra and that the police were not consulted before Congress decided to discontinue the march.

Meanwhile, Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh tweeted that the lapse in security was a show of “lowest of lows” of the government.

“India already has lost Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, no administration should do politics on such matters,” Ramesh said.