Srinagar, Expressing concern over the uncertain situation in the state, former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed said here today that the PDP would organise demonstrations at all district headquarters on April 26 to draw the government’s attention towards it. The PDP patron urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan Prime Minister Syed Raza Gilani to discuss the Kashmir issue during their meeting at the forthcoming two-day SAARC summit beginning at Thimphu in Bhutan on April 28. “The two leaders will have a chance to meet after New York. We appeal them to talk on this (Kashmir) issue at a substantive level,” the Mufti said while addressing a press conference at his Gupkar residence. The revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), reduction of troops, release of detainees and the share of water resources were the PDP’s main agenda, he said.
The Mufti held that unless the Kashmir issue was taken up with Pakistan, peace could not be restored in the state. “This is not the demand of militants but of the people of Jammu and Kashmir to the people and leadership of the country,” he said. The former Chief Minister said, “You will have to change this mindset and address the issue by shifting from the stated position.” He also appreciated the UPA government at the Centre for “helping us a lot in our efforts to find a solution to the Kashmir issue”. At the same time, the Mufti lamented that the announcement by Union Home Minister P Chidambaram about “quiet diplomacy” did not yield any results.
Referring to the measures taken by the NDA government earlier, the Mufti said the process was going on smoothly, but now there had been a “kind of confrontation” between the two neighbouring countries. He added that after the Mumbai attacks certain elements in Pakistan had been identified and action had been taken against them by its government. The Mufti asked the two Prime Ministers to take substantive measures to resolve the Kashmir issue. A formal peoples’ movement was being launched for the resolution of the Kashmir issue, he said and held that his party would try to use “peoples’ power politically and democratically”.
Elaborating further on the need to shun the path of confrontation, the Mufti recalled that the PDP-Congress coalition government had taken various people-friendly measures even during the NDA government at the Centre.
Meanwhile, the youth wing of the PDP has alleged that the government, instead of responding to problems of educated unemployed, had unleashed terror on them and was misleading them in the name of employment policy.
Speaking at a meeting of the Srinagar district youth wing, its president, Bashir Assad, said instead of providing employment and sustenance to the educated youth, the Omar Abdullah regime was implicating many of them in false and fabricated cases.
Assad added the state government had also devised a novel way by which the victims of violence were prosecuted and punished. He asserted the party would play a pivotal role in highlighting the problems of the youth and plead their cause vociferously. It also resolved to continue its campaign to focus on the problems faced by the people as a result of the NC-led government’s failure to resolve day-to-day problems
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