Set to study the ground situation in Jammu and Kashmir, the all-party delegation led by Home Minister P. Chidambaram arrived in Jammu on Tuesday, even as the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Samajwadi Party and the Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP) decided to boycott the team.
The 36-member delegation, which arrived here from Srinagar, will meet over 30 delegations representing political parties, social, religious, trade and other associations, official sources said.
The BJP said it will boycott the all-party meeting here in protest against the failure to invite various nationalist parties for putting forth their viewpoints on Jammu and Kashmir.
“We have decided to boycott the all-party meeting here in protest against the failure to invite nationalist parties,” Jammu and Kashmir BJP president Shamsher Singh Manhas said.
BJP spokesman Balbir Ram said 16 organisations have not been invited for the meeting. “These parties represent the aspirations and view points of Jammu and have been deliberately kept aside,” he said.
Some of these organisations are VHP, RSS, Bajrang Dal and Panun Kashmir, he said.
He also said members of the all-party leaders delegation can go and meet separatist leaders at their homes despite their refusal to meet, but they chose to ignore and sideline nationalist parties here.
“This is a clear discrimination with Jammu and we are not going to tolerate it,” he said.
Demanding resignation of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, the State unit of the BJP strongly opposed any move to revoke the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and demanded jobs on compassionate grounds for the kin of those killed in the ongoing unrest in the Valley.
The JKNPP has also decided not to meet the delegation.
“We have decided to boycott the delegation as no terms and conditions are attached. The delegation has no constitutional authority to take cognisance of the facts and situation that prevails today in J&K and particularly in the Kashmir Valley,” JKNPP chairman Bhim Singh told reporters here.
The SP has also decided to keep away from meeting the delegation. “We are not meeting the delegation,” State SP chief Sheikh Abdul Reham said.
Meanwhile, multi-tier security has been deployed in and around the venue of the meeting.
“We have sounded an alert in Jammu region. Police has been asked to keep a round the clock monitoring in sensitive areas of the region to foil any design of the militants,” Jammu Inspector General of Police Ashok Gupta.
30 arrested for protesting against team
Meanwhile, 30 persons belonging to refugee and migrant communities were arrested for protesting against not being invited to meet the all-party delegation in Jammu.
Thirteen persons belonging to the refugee community and led by chairman of SOS International Rajiv Chuni were taken into custody by police at City Chowk here when they were proceeding towards Chief Minister’s official residence, the venue of the meeting, police sources said.
They were taken into custody as they had not officially been invited to meet the delegation, they said.
Police also took into custody 17 members of displaced Kashmiri Pandits at Domana near here after they staged demonstration for not being invited to meet the delegation.
They belonged to migrant camps of Purkhoo and Mishriwala on the outskirts of the city.
