Unrest in the Kashmir Valley continued for 45th day today, bringing normal life across the valley to a standstill.
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“We are confident that the issue of safety to drivers, attendants and vehicles would be amicably resolved and supplies restored to the valley by tomorrow”, Gupta said.
Contending that the unrest in Kashmir was “pre-planned”, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti yesterday said a “handful of people” were deliberately keeping the Valley on the boil.
“The Prime Minister told us in categorical terms that development alone would not resolve this problem”.
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi pressed for a lasting solution to the Kashmir problem, Geelani said it lay in India adhering to the United Nations resolutions. “I am not going to put words into the Prime Minister’s mouth nor am I going to draw further meaning from what he had said”, he added.
The Congress was officially wary of the meeting between Kashmiri leaders and the Prime Minister. “So many leaders are meeting the Prime Minister and raising this issue”.
At the outset, the Center said the Jammu and Kashmir High Court was already seized of the matter and hence the plea, pending in the apex court, be disposed of.
She said the prevailing painful situation in Kashmir necessitates reaching out to all shades of the political opinion in the State and initiating substantive political and economic measures to revive and consolidate the peace and resolution process. The tried and tested formulation of dealing with the issue administratively rather than politically “has further exacerbated the situation” and created an “unprecedented sense of disaffection and disenchantment-especially among the youth”, the memorandum noted. We also want a lasting solution.
She expressed pain that children are being used as a shield by “vested interests” while attacking camps and posts of security forces to incite them, as a result of which innocent kids become a casualty.
Bhim Singh’s petition had said that due to the use of pellet guns by the security forces, people were becoming blind and there was a shortage of medicines and medical facilities available to the citizens.
“I don’t understand what happened. people were waiting for a chance”.
Modi stressed the need for dialogue to end the unrest in the disputed Himalayan region, after meeting the opposition leaders in New Delhi at their request.
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On Sunday, the delegation met Congress Party vice president Rahul Gandhi and apprised him about the situation in the state.
