Singh’s visit comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with a joint delegation of Jammu & Kashmir’s opposition parties led by Omar Abdullah, where he expressed “deep concern and pain” over the situation in Kashmir while seeking a permanent solution to the problems in the state.
Advertisement
As Home Minister Rajnath Singh will undertake a two-day visit to the Indian-administered-Kashmir on Wednesday, Congress on Tuesday made a strong pitch for initiating talks to calm down the situation in the state which is on the boil for the past 45 days.
A day before Singh’s visit, separatists also upped the ante with Mirwaiz writing to Pope Francis of Vatican, Dalai Lama, Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi and many ambassadors seeking their help to find a solution to the problem, which “India and Pakistan can not and are not able to do on their own”. “Has it changed anything on ground except inflicting deep and pestering wounds on Kashmiris?” she said and added that instead of facilitating resolution of the issues, it (violence) only left behind a trail of tragedies and pain in nearly every household in Kashmir. “The security machinery of India has embarked upon the strategy of ruthlessly crushing us and our resistance to its unprecedented brutality”, he said. The Centre has asked security forces to strictly implement curfew in the Valley.
A senior police officer said strict curfew has been imposed in Pulwama following the clashes.
Official sources said Singh asked head of para-military forces, dealing with the law and order situation, to exercise maximum restraint while dealing with protesters and also appreciated their efforts in maintaining law and order in the Valley.
Singh had said the central government will talk to whosoever needed once peace and normalcy is restored in the state. A committee, which is to come up with a report within two months, has also been set up to review the use of pellet guns to disperse crowds.
Advertisement
Calling for winning the hearts and minds of the people, she said the reconciliation and resolution process which was started in 2002 by the then NDA Government headed by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had shown tangible results on the ground.
