Jammu: PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Monday asserted that the dialogue with Pakistan and the stakeholders within J&K and opening of cross-border roads to bring the divided parts together can bring peace and everlasting solution to the problem.
Mehbooba Mufti made the assertion while advising the BJP to take a leaf out of former Prime Minister A B Vajpayee’s book.
The former chief minister warned that militancy is on the rise in the Valley with more youths preferring militancy over going to jail after no middle path was left and voices of dissent silenced through the muzzle of power .
Attempts are being made to vitiate the atmosphere by politics of hatred and division. The people like us are facing problems to live in Kashmir due to an increase in militancy under their (BJP) rule.
They were saying militancy has finished but the reality is that at least 10 to 15 youth are joining militancy from each village, Mehbooba told reporters here at the end of her five-day visit to Jammu.
It was her first visit to Jammu after release from 14 months of detention under the Pubic Safety Act (PSA) following the abrogation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir last year.
She said the militancy is on the rise because you (BJP) have silenced all the voices and not left the middle path for the people. The youth is thinking of two options — whether to go to jail or pick up the gun — and he chooses later to get killed rather than going to the jail.
Mehbooba said the situation on the borders is of concern to the people as local residents are living under the constant threat to their lives due to the continued cross-border shelling.
Mehbooba said she wanted J&K to become a bridge of peace and friendship between India and its neighbours. (PTI)
