Kolkata, May 20 (IANS) A five-member delegation of West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress will be visiting Jammu & Kashmir from Wednesday to review the situation there in the wake of the ghastly terror attack at Pahalgam last month, as well as the firing by Pakistan artillery on the border villages.

The delegation will have four Rajya Sabha members and one state minister. The four MPs include the Trinamool leader in the Rajya Sabha, Derek O’Brien, Nadimul Haque, Mamata Bala Thakur and Sagarika Ghose, while the state member in the delegation is Manas Ranjan Bhunia.

They will be reaching Jammu & Kashmir on Wednesday and will be there till May 23. “The delegation will mainly visit places like Srinagar, Poonch, and Rajouri. They will speak to the common people there and try to have an idea about their living conditions amid the terror attack and Pakistan artillery firing,” a senior party leader said.

The leader also said that the delegation is going to Jammu & Kashmir following the instructions of the party supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who also selected the five members of the delegation. The selection of the places where the delegation members will visit was also done by the Chief Minister, the leader said.

After coming back from Jammu & Kashmir, the delegation members will give a detailed report to the Chief Minister.

However, not a single member of the delegation was willing to make any official statement about the tentative schedule of their visits. Already, strict instructions from the party for all leaders have come asking them to refrain from making any comments either on the Pahalgam terror attack or on Operation Sindoor.

The leaders have been clearly instructed that if anything needed to be said on these issues, it would be said only by the Chief Minister.

Earlier in the day, the Chief Minister nominated party General Secretary and MP Abhishek Banerjee as the Trinamool’s representative in the multi-party delegations on Operation Sindoor. Banerjee replaced cricketer-turned-politician and Baharampur MP, Yusuf Pathan, who was named by the Centre as the Trinamool representative.

–IANS

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