A delegation of Jammu and Kashmir’s mainstream political parties will soon meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to seek an inclusive political package as a major enterprise to address the issues in the state.
It was one of the decisions taken at an all-party meet held here on Monday. The meeting called by chief minister Omar Abdullah discussed the crisis set off by the recent protests, mob violence and killing of 18 youth in police firings and beatings across the Kashmir Valley. The meet also asked for holding an independent commission into these killings.
The meeting decided that the all-party delegation will invite the Prime Minister’s attention towards various other problems faced by the state, including its economic needs particularly unemployment and fewer opportunities available to the youth to explore their talent. Some of the members were of the view that Mr Singh should have during his recent visit to Srinagar unpacked a political package providing the disgruntled political voices a wider space to step forward and ally with what they saw as indispensable political process.
The participants also urged the Centre to strengthen the on-going peace process through the internal and external dialogue. However, some of them sought to add riders to such possibilities and asked the government to act cautiously particularly when dealing with Pakistan and the Hurriyat Conference leadership.
The BJP is learnt to have expressed reservations over certain observations and insistence from some other participants including those from ruling National Conference (NC) that the Centre should offer unconditional talks to separatists. Represented by its J&K state president Mr Shamsher Singh Manhas and two other local leaders, the BJP also opposed a resolution moved at the end of four-hour-long discussions and subsequently passed by a majority vote which asked for holding an inquiry to ascertain the circumstances leading to the death of the civilians.
Some of the participants said they were not happy over the way the state government has dealt with the situation. A legislator taking a dig at the chief minister said that the announcement to lift curfew on the eve of Meraj al-Aalam festival was made directly from New Delhi by the Union home secretary.
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Mobile service operators asked to check misuse
Age Correspondent
New Delhi
July 12: Amidst intelligence reports of cross-border militant outfits trying to create unrest in the Valley, the Centre on Monday asked the cellphone service operators to pull up their socks to prevent the misuse of cellphone services by anti-national elements.
The government has asked the cellphone operators to complete the verification of all subscribers within one week and ensure strict compliance to the guidelines issued by the department of telecom.
It was found that out of a sample of 500 cellphones, the verification norms were violated in 65 per cent of the cases.