MUFTI PITCHES FOR TALKS WITH ALL PARTIES

The Centre wants the Jammu and Kashmir government to play a more “proactive role” in maintaining law and order across the Valley, which has been seeing a spate of violent incidents, including stonepelting by locals. The Centre’s concern was conveyed to Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti during her meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Rajnath Singh on Monday.

Sources said that the general assessment was that there was need for tougher action by the J&K police which was not able to handle the agitations as a “professional force” and relied too much on the Central forces in the Valley.

Speaking to the media after her meeting with the PM, Ms Mufti said though he was amenable to holding talks with all stakeholders in the Valley, this was possible only after the situation turned normal. She again floated the idea of following former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee’s strategy of holding talks with the separatists.

The Centre wants the Jammu and Kashmir government to play a more “proactive role” in maintaining law and order across the Valley, which has been seeing a spate of violent incidents, including stonepelting by locals.

As a follow-up of her meetings with the PM and the home minister, Ms Mufti will now discuss the security issues with the Unified Command in Srinagar on Tuesday.

“We cannot have a constant confrontation and talks are the only way out. But for this a favourable atmosphere has to be created. If talks could be held with the Hurriyat during the Vajpayee government, when L.K. Advani was deputy prime minister, we can take that process forward,” Ms Mufti said.

“Talks cannot happen amid stone-pelting and firing of bullets,” she said, adding that “the Prime Minister has every intention of holding talks after the situation becomes normal.”

The CM expressed the hope that the security scenario would show considerable improvement in the next few months, making the situation favourable for a dialogue.