Sixty-seven people have died and hundreds have been injured in massive street protests that erupted after a Kashmiri militant, Burhan Wani, was killed by Indian security forces last month.
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He said the security forces exercised restraint while dealing with protesters in the Valley.
“In the coming few days, we will give an alternative to the pellet guns”.
Union home minister Rajnath SIngh and Jammu And Kashmir’s chief minister Mehbooba Mufti said that they will do everything possible to bring peace in the Valley.
With regard to her earlier remarks about 95 per cent people of Kashmir not supporting the agitation, she said, “What I meant was that people want resolution of issues peacefully but 5 per cent people who resort to violence have hijacked the issue”.
Rajnath said that the government is trying to find a solution to the problem and that their understanding of the situation must not be questioned.
In contrast, Mehbooba Mufti said five per cent people in Kashmir were involved in the violence and they will be dealt with under the law. The J&K chief minister’s Delhi visit comes a day after she held a meeting with Home Minister Rajnath Singh followed by a joint press conference. Union home minister Rajnath Singh, who reached Srinagar on Wednesday to “talk to the stakeholders” invited all and sundry to meet him in Guest house, Srinagar, for a dialogue. “Who is forcing them to take stones in their hands? I appeal to all Kashmiris not to play with the future of youth in the Valley”. They said that discussions were the only way forward and that a majority of Kashmiris want peace.
The Home Minister said “India would be incomplete without Kashmir”.
“We are ready to talk to those who believe in Insaaniyat (humanity), Jumhooriyat (democracy) and Kashmiriyat”, he said.
Mufti said that her government will order an inquiry into the death of a 30-year-old-lecturer who was allegedly beaten to death by the army in custody. There was a fake encounter in Machil in which three civilians were killed. “How is the Government to be blamed for that”, she shot back. “The young man setting a police station on fire now can not be compared with someone being shot at while going out to buy milk or toffee”, she said, and stood up abruptly to leave. “We are linking the future of Kashmiri youth with the future of India”. “Ninety-five percent people killed are from poor families”.
Mehbooba asserted, “I am for resolution of Kashmir issue”.
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She said people had come out on the roads even though the government had imposed a strict curfew.
