Kashmiri political leaders call for restraint after air strikes

SRINAGAR: Leaders of mainstream political parties in Kashmir called for calm after Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter jets struck terror camp across the line of control (LOC) on Tuesday.

National Conference (NC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leaders hoped that there was no more escalation of hostilities while Peoples’ Conference chairman Sajad Lone said the IAF’S pre-dawn strike would act as a deterrent for Pakistan.

“JEM hit Indian forces & claimed the attack. In turn Indian forces hit JEM & owned that air strike. It’s now time for cooler heads to prevail. War is never an ideal option to resolve disputes. Let’s go back to the India-saudi joint statement of last week,” former J&K chief minister and NC leader Omar Abdullah tweeted.

Reacting to the developments, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti expressed hope that good sense would prevail in India and Pakistan. “As Pakistan has claimed that no casualties were reported, they should adopt a reconciliatory stand as opposed to further escalation. Or else, an already volatile situation will spiral out of control,” she said.

“Todays IAF strikes were followed by mass war hysteria on twitter & news channels. Most of these people are ignorant. But its disconcerting that educated privileged people are cheering on at the prospect of a war. This is true jahaalat,” she said in a tweet.