While the Centre braces to send an all-party delegation on a two-day visit to Kashmir to interact with individuals and groups and bring peace to the valley, senior congress functionary Ghulam Nabi Azad said on here on Tuesday that the initiative should have been taken much earlier.
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The sources said the exercise is being undertaken to ensure that all MPs speak in tandem and there is consensus among the lawmakers while speaking to a cross-section of people.
The members of the all-party delegation during their two-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir, beginning September 4, will be free to meet any leader or individual or groups “including separatists”, the government said on Tuesday. “Curfew has been lifted from the entire Valley”.
Curfew has been lifted from Anantnag in South Kashmir and parts of Srinagar, while it remains in force in other parts of Srinagar that fall under the jurisdictions of the police stations of Maharajganj and Nowhatta. An informal preparatory meeting of all the visiting MPs will be held in the Parliament House on September 3 where Rajnath Singh and parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar will also be present.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had spoken about the Kashmir situation in his “Mann Ki Baat” programme.
The visit of the all-party delegation to the valley is aimed at holding meetings with local leaders aiming to stop the unrest that was sparked off in Jammu and Kashmir following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani on July 8. “‘Ekta’ (unity) and ‘Mamata’ (affection) was the crux of all interactions I had recently on Kashmir situation”, he said. He also said that all political parties spoke in one voice on Kashmir, sending out a strong message to the world as well as separatists Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti had met the Prime Minister on Saturday.
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In a statement issued last week, the separatists have asked people to continue the shutdown until 1 September.
