“But now, we feel there should be an alternative”, Rajnath Singh said.
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In contrast, Mehbooba Mufti said five per cent of people in Kashmir were involved in the violence and they will be dealt with under the law. “The 5% who mislead kids into pelting stones don’t represent Kashmiris”, Mufti said.
A United Nations human rights official has expressed “deep regret” at the failure of both India and Pakistan to grant access to the separate parts of Kashmir that each runs to investigate allegations of serious human rights violations. “I also appeal to the people of Kashmir that they shouldn’t forget the role our security forces played during the floods of 2014”, he added. Children are children. We can never think of Kashmir’s future in separation from the future of India.
He said leaders of all political parties will soon visit here for talks on finding ways to break the logjam in the valley.
When asked that senior PDP leader and Member Parliament Muzaffar Hussain Beigh has expressed dissatisfaction that government had not run between alliance partners as per the “Agenda of the Alliance” in the state, he replied, “We are committed for the implementation of the Agenda of the Alliance”.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s second visit to Kashmir in a month did little to push the cause of peace in the state.
The Modi government is however unclear as to whom it would talk in Kashmir for a political solution.
“I’ve told CM Mehbooba Mufti that an all-party delegation should visit the state and preparations should be made for that”, Singh said. The Pulwama curfew was owing to the death of a youth after clashes with security forces on Wednesday. Pellet guns have come under sharp criticism for blinding hundreds of people. More than 68,000 people have been killed since rebel groups began fighting Indian forces in 1989 and in the subsequent Indian military crackdown. She got angry and asked a reporter not to compare the two situations. Machil fake encounter had happened, Shopian rape and murder case was there, a teenage boy was killed – there was a reason for the anger. Today, three militants were killed in an encounter. We imposed curfew. Did the children go to army camps to buy toffees (candy)? Was the 15-year-old boy, who attacked the police station at Damhal Hanjipora (in south Kashmir), going there to get milk.
She added emphatically that poor Kashmiri youth were being used as shields by vested interests.
Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti too asserted that “95% people in the Valley wanted peace and reconciliation”.
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Before leaving for Srinagar, the home minister had tweeted saying those who believe in “Kashmiriyat, Insaniyat and Jamhooriyat” were welcome to meet him during his visit.
