For the first time after Independence, Jammu and Kashmir is celebrating the Accession Day today. October 26 has been made a public holiday.

It was exactly 73 years ago that the last J&K ruler, Maharaja Hari Singh, had signed the Instrument of Accession with Lord Mountbatten, the last Governor-General of India, thus incorporating the state into India. In December last year, a few months after the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution, the General Administration Department of the newly-made Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir made the decision on the Accession Day.

“Three BJP leaders were detained in Srinagar on Monday when they attempted to unfurl the Tricolor on the occasion of the Accession Day, which the Union Territory (UT) dispensation has announced as a holiday from this year,” The Hindu reported.

The three leaders, belonging to the party’s Kupwara unit, arrived at the commercial hub Lal Chowk and were heading towards the Clock Tower when they were detained and shifted to the Kothi Bagh Police Station, the report said.

The leaders—Mir Basharat, Mir Ishfaq and Akhtar Khan—took out a ‘Tiranga Car Rally’. They were detained for violating prohibitory orders under Section 144 imposed in Srinagar.

UNI reported that the rally passed through the Guptkar Road which has the residences of three former chief ministers—Farooq Abdullah, his son Omar Abdullah, and Mehbooba Mufti..