BJP disowns 'worker' after his picture with AK-47 goes viral

Flaunting photos with Modi & Rajnath, Sareen maintains he still works as party leader

JAMMU: Though ruling Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) has distanced itself from Ashish Sareen, a local leader who attracted media attention after his picture holding an AK-47 assault rifle went viral on social media, Sareen's claim of being a party man stay strong as he maintained that he is still working under the guidance of party leadership.
The BJP man, who has been seen with BJP stars, none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and from BJP national vice-president Avinash Rai Khanna to MoS PMO Dr Jitendra Singh, today hit the media limelight after his photograph brandishing an AK-47 Rifle went viral.
Soon after the incident, talking to the News Now, BJP state president and MLA, Sat Sharma disowned Ashish Sareen, saying that he is not BJP's active member and even not holding any post in state executive.
"Ashish Sareen is not our active member. He is not in any state working committee or Morcha or belonging to any party wing," said Sharma, who himself was also seen with Sareen in many picture, uploaded on latter's Facebook profile.
Sareen, pertinently, found himself at the centre stage of media highlights on Wednesday when he uploaded his picture with a weapon (Ak-47) on Facebook, with a caption 'Don is Don'.
Claiming himself as the vice-president of the BJP and the former state vice-president of the Bhartiya Janta Yuva Morcha as per Facebook account, Sareen in his peevish defence said, "It was my mistake to upload the picture with AK-47 rifle, which belongs to Personal Security Officer (PSO) of Jammu and Kashmir Police."
He further added that the picture was clicked during a private function in Kashmir, where many people clicked their pictures with the same weapon. BJP sources said that the Ak-47 rifle belongs to the PSO of a Kashmir-based BJP leader.
Official sources in police have though expressed their concern as to how one could get his pictures clicked while holding an assault rifle that too belonging to a police man.
"It could be dangerous if the weapon is unlocked and a layman fiddles with it without having knowledge of its killing potency," they added.
Meanwhile, sources in security agencies have also questioned the disowning of Sareen by the BJP.
"If Sareen is not a BJP leader then how was he seen with VVIPs in all occasions of the party. Even if they (BJP) are right in this, it amounts to a grave security breach as someone-not a party leader was seen with highly secured persons like PM, HM, MoS, MPs and state ministers," they said.
Incidentally, Sareen's current profile picture on FaceBook displays a picture of him with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while in his cover picture, he could be seen with Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
Pertinently, disowning leaders after their pictures or comments goes viral, for not-so-good reasons, is fast becoming a trend. A few days ago, congress had disowned Salman Nizami over his controversial tweets over PM Modi.
It may be recalled that in 2014, People's Democratic Party (PDP) leader and Member of Legislative Assembly from Chadoora Constituency Javid Mustafa Mir was seen brandishing an AK-47 was widely shared across social media websites.
Before him, National Conference leader Nasir Aslam Wani's son brandished a gun, a photo of which was put up on a social networking site.