The BJP on Friday found common cause with Kashmir’s Muslim clergy and other pro-Valley voices over the demand for a liquor ban, with dozens of its leaders and activists pushing through police barricades to stage protests outside chief minister Omar Abdullah’s residence in Srinagar.

The BJP leaders and activists raised pro-ban slogans near the Srinagar city centre as they headed towards the chief minister’s Gupkar residence. A strong contingent of police and paramilitary personnel struggled to disperse the protesters.

The slogans painted the supporters of the ruling National Conference as “traitors” over Omar and his father Farooq Abdullah’s backing of the sale of liquor to non-Muslims in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Valley clergy led by Hurriyat Conference chief Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, along with several pro-azaadi and pro-India political parties, have long been championing the cause of a liquor ban in Kashmir.

The BJP, which has long defended liquor sales in Kashmir, has now emerged as an unlikely champion of the ban, seen as an apparent bid to reach out to the region’s Muslims opposing the sale of alcohol.

The protest highlights an irony as lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha’s administration has fiercely rebuffed calls for a ban by opening more shops despite protests by locals. Sinha is leading a 100-day campaign against drug addiction in Jammu and Kashmir, which has ruffled feathers after allegations that it is disproportionately targeting Kashmiris.

Many are also asking why his government is facilitating the consumption of liquor while conducting a campaign against drugs.

The Omar-led government, too, is facing outrage over his remarks suggesting his support for the sale of liquor. Following criticism, the chief minister said he was against liquor consumption by Muslims and that he had spoken about the sale of alcohol to those whose religion permitted them to drink. Farooq later ruled out a ban unless the Centre compensates Jammu and Kashmir for the revenue loss.

Finding the ruling party on a sticky wicket on the issue, the BJP has now waded into the controversy, seeking to position itself as a champion of liquor ban.

BJP’s Jammu and Kashmir X handle said the protest, led by the party’s Union Territory general secretary Mohammad Anwar Khan, was against the promotion and sale of liquor here. “The leaders strongly voiced public concern against the liquor trade and called for safeguarding the traditional and social ethos of Jammu & Kashmir,” the post said.

BJP leader Altaf Thakur vowed to take the protests to all parts of Kashmir and lock the liquor shops if the government failed to do so.

That had an echo in the campaign of militant groups, which had imposed a ban on the sale and consumption of liquor for years by closing down vends. They also used bombs and bullets to impose the ban.