New Delhi, Aug. 25: The Union home minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, on Wednesday hinted at the beginning of a peace dialogue in Kashmir in the next few days, and reiterated the government’s offer of a dialogue with all sections of the people and all political parties and groups in the state. He also said the Centre had acknowledged that a political solution must be found to the state’s problems.
“However, it is my hope that in the next few days we would be able to find that elusive ‘starting point’ from where we could reach out to the protesters, reassure them of their rights and dignity, restore peace and order, redeem the promises made, and restart the process of dialogue that will lead to a solution,” he said.
Mr Chidambaram said Kashmir has been caught in a vicious cycle of stone-pelting, lathicharge, teargassing and firing, leading to casualties and resulting in more stone-pelting since June this year.
He said the security forces had been instructed to act with great restraint, but acknowledged that the situation was yet to return to normal.
Observing that the conflict with Maoists would be a long-drawn one, the home minister pointed out that patience is the key to resolution of the conflict.
“We made it clear that it would take several years before we were able to contain the CPI (Maoists) and roll back their offensive,” said Mr Chidambaram.
He regretted the fact that the Maoists had refused to respond to the central government’s call to abjure violence and begin talks.
“We have called upon the Maoists to abjure violence and come for talks. I regret to say that there has been no direct and credible response to our offers of talks, he added.