Whosoever is ready to reject violence and help in restoring peace should be engaged in a dialogue to address the Kashmir problem, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said on Sunday, adding that she was not averse to involving the separatists if they are looking for a peaceful resolution.
However, Ms. Mufti said, a “conducive atmosphere” is needed to be created for a dialogue and the “bunch of people” provoking youth to “gherao and attack” security camps should stop abetting violence.
The Chief Minister, who met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday to discuss steps to resolve the current crisis, stressed that the format of dialogue should be better than in the past when the Central governments nominated interlocutors. Speaking to PTI , she said, “What I am concerned about and told the Prime Minister is that people have lost faith in dialogue. So first dialogue as an institution has to be restored.”
Peace necessary before talks, says Mehbooba
Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti on Sunday called for a resumption of dialogue to resolve the conflict in Kashmir. However, she said there should be peace before talks are initiated. “Today there is no alternative to dialogue but for dialogue (to happen), you need to have conducive atmosphere,” she said.
Maintaining that nothing will be achieved through violence, Ms Mufti said killings and deaths only “further complicate” the issue.
In a message to the Hurriyat and other separatist groups, she said, “If they want to save young and precious lives, they need to tell them the truth that these killings… deaths are not going to solve the problem but these further complicate the issue. It also hijacks the basic issue and gives it a tinge of violence. The whole world is fed up with violence. Nobody is ready to listen to the voice of violence .”
She urged the Hurriyat leaders to use “whatever influence” they have on the young boys who indulge in violence, to see that some sense prevails.
On resuming dialogue, she said the “threads” need to be picked up from where former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had left them, as he had made a “very serious effort” by having dialogue both on external front with Pakistan and on internal front with Hurriyat and Hizbul Mujahideen militant outfit.
