Yashwant Sinha-led group calls for peaceful Ramzan

NEW DELHI: A group of Indian citizens led by former Union minister and senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha has appealed to militants and stone pelters in Jammu and Kashmir to desist from violence during Ramzan.

The Concerned Citizens Group, in a statement, also appealed to the Centre and the PDP-BJP government in the state to take the lead and declare that security forces will respond only in cases of extreme provocation and in self defence.

“Let there be no violence in Kashmir during Ramzan,” said the signatories to the statement.

The statement coincided with the army honouring its major, who was in the eye of a storm for allegedly tying a Kashmiri man to a jeep to use him as a human shield, with the army chief’s commendation card for his “sustained efforts in CI (counter insurgency) operations”.

Apart from Sinha, the group has justice AP Shah, Salman Haidar, JF Ribeiro, Wajahat Habibullah, Vappala Balachandran, AS Dulat, Nirupama Rao, Aruna Roy, Syeda Hameed, Kapil Kak, Manish Tewari, Badri Raina, Zoya Hasan, Ramachandra Guha, S Irfan Habib, Prem Shankar Jha, Shekhar Gupta, John Dayal, Bharat Bhushan and Sushobha Barve as its members.

The members of the group — which advocates immediate dialogue with all stakeholders to ensure return of peace in the Valley — had visited Kashmir in October last year and met separatist leaders and civil society groups. “There is no respite from violence in parts of Kashmir and along the LoC and the international border. The situation is far from normal in J&K and we cannot continue to live in denial,” the group said. It added that the loss of human lives, including of the forces, should be unacceptable to all peace-loving people and should be ended at the earliest.