Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday hailed the talks between her predecessor Omar Abdullah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi with regard to the unrest in Kashmir and said that all main stream parties should make efforts to improve the situation in the state.
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Ironically, this came on a day when the Border Security Force, which was taken off counter-insurgency operations in J&K in 2004, was deployed in the summer capital after a gap of 11 years. BSF personnel were deployed in the commercial hub of Lal Chowk and adjoining areas for law and order duties, a police official said. Clashes between protesters and security forces for over five weeks have left some 68 people dead.
CPM MLA Mohammed Yusuf Tarigami, state Congress president G. A. Mir, senior leaders of National Conference and some Independent MLAs were the other members of the delegation.
Modi told a delegation of Opposition leaders from Jammu and Kashmir that all political parties should reach out to the people of the state to convey that the Centre and the nation stood by them in this period of crisis. Speaking to a private TV channel, he said a political solution to the problem will have to be found soon within the Constitutional parameters. He challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to withdraw UNMOGIP (United Nations Military Observers Group of India & Pakistan) established in Srinagar in 1947 to prove his contention that Jammu & Kashmir is an internal affair of India. They also demanded immediate ban on the use of pellet guns and an advisory against the “policy of mass harassment, raids and arrests”.
Former Chief Minister of Indian-occupied Kashmir, Omar Abdullah has said that unrest in Kashmir was not the product of Pakistan and blaming Pakistan for the ongoing protests in the disputed Himalayan region was like “living in denial”. “You tell us whether you want to go and meet the political leadership or not”, the bench said. Abdullah said the opposition leaders handed over a memorandum to the PM warning him against the “tried and tested formulations of dealing with the issue in Kashmir administratively rather than politically”.
“The people of Jammu and Kashmir are for peace”.
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“The renewed trust people of the State have time and again reposed in the democratic institutions, offers an opportunity to work through peaceful and reconciliatory means towards addressing all the dimensions of the Kashmir issue in a manner that balances and promotes enduring political and economic stability in the State”, Mehbooba said addressing a gathering at Bhagwati Nagar. “We will get ample time to play political games later”.
