Facing a month-long turbulence and violence in the state J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti yesterday urged PM Narendra Modi to open a dialogue process with the people of the state. “We are the people, who walk the path that Atal Bihari Vajpayee took when it comes to Kashmir”, he added while asserting that Kashmir wants peace.
Advertisement
The NDA government headed by Vajpayee had initiated a process of dialogue and engagement with the Kashmiri leadership separatists and political parties.
“There is a need to apply balm to the wounds of the Kashmiri people …”
The Chief Minister arrived in New Delhi on an unannounced trip as the month-long deadly unrest in the Kashmir Valley continues. This was her first visit to New Delhi after a spree of killings by the government forces started in Kashmir following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani and his two associates on July 8.
CM of J&K Mehbooba Mufti talking to the media after meeting Rajnath Singh on current situation of J&K.
Mehbooba Mufti was expected to meet the Prime Minister on Tuesday morning. This was followed by the high-level meeting later in the day between the home minister and Jammu & Kashmir chief minister.
“2010, it continued for three months, 122 people were killed and now it has been about a month and 50- 55 people have been killed”, she said, adding that these are our children and our people.
Raising the issue in Zero Hour after his notice under rule 267 seeking suspension of business to discuss the issue was disallowed, Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said no state in independent India has seen 30 days of continuous curfew that has paralysed the administration, shut down educational institutions and led to near zero attendance in government offices. “If a dialogue can improve the situation in the Valley, we should do it”, she told reporters.
There is a “need to heal the wounds” of the people and to initiate a dialogue with them, she said. We want development for Jammu and Kashmir.
Advertisement
She said while the problems confronting the state could be tackled through short-term economic and developmental initiatives, “there has to be a political solution to the problem of the state, which could be reached out by involving all the stakeholders in a constructive and result-oriented dialogue process”.
