SRINAGAR: The All Party Meeting (APM) convened by chief minister, Mehbooba Mufti on Thursday to discuss the prevailing situation in the Valley called for a national initiative for addressing the problems confronting the State and its people and demanded engagement with all the stakeholders in J&K for carrying forward the peace and reconciliation process in the State.
The APM meeting lasted for five hours during which the participants discussed the prevailing political and law and order situation in the Valley, where 46 people have died and over 4000 are injured in 13 days of clashes between security personnel and protestors during protests triggered by killing of 21-year-old Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani. Burhan was killed in an encounter with security forces on July 8.
Besides Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, the APM was attended by Deputy Chief Minister, Nirmal Singh; Minister for Forests, Choudhary Lal Singh; Minister for Education, Naeem Akhtar; Minister for CA&PD, Choudhary Zulfkar Ali; Minister for Social Welfare, Sajad Gani Lone; Minister for Youth Services and Sports, Imran Raza Ansari; Minister for Industries, Chandar Parkash Ganga; Minister for Animal and Sheep Husbandry, Abdul Ghani Kohli; Advisor to Chief Minister, Prof Amitabh Mattoo; Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Navin Kumar Choudhary and Commissioner Secretary Law, Mohammad Ashraf Mir.
Leaders of various political parties including J&K Pradesh Congress Committee president, G A Mir; CPI (M) State Secretary, Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami; Panthers Party president, Harshdev Singh; PDF leader, Hakim Mohammad Yasin; Democratic Nationalist Party leader, Ghulam Hassan Mir; LSJP leader, Sanjay Saraf; Awami Ittehad Party leader, Er Rashid; CPI leader, A R Tukroo; BJP State President Sat Sharma and others attended the meeting and spoke during the 5-hour long marathon meeting.
In the meeting participants expressed concern over the prevailing situation in the Valley and wanted government to take tangible measures to ensure that civilian lives are not lost.
Cutting across the divide, the political leaders assured their full cooperation in restoring calm and peace. They said no effort should be made by anybody to escalate the situation.
The meeting, which started with observance of two minutes of silence to pay homage to those who lost their lives in clashes during protests in the Valley since July 9, passed three resolutions.
“The meeting expressed deep grief and concern over the loss of lives and injuries caused during the law and order situation,” said one of the resolutions passed by the participants.
The APM also took note of the empathy and sense of solidarity with the people reflected during the debate on the prevailing situation in the State in both houses of the Parliament.
The meeting called for converting this political consensus into a national initiative for addressing the problems confronting Jammu and Kashmir and its people.
The APM called for inclusive engagement of all the stakeholders in Jammu and Kashmir for carrying forward the peace and reconciliation process in the State.
Earlier, while addressing the APM, Mehbooba said country’s political leadership shall have to take on board all the stakeholders and pursue an agenda which is politically-inclusive and developmentally-intensive to address the challenges confronting Jammu and Kashmir internally and externally.
She said the State Government would act as a facilitator for resolving the problems and challenges confronting Jammu and Kashmir if tangible steps are taken to reach out to all the stakeholders.
“A new course for J&K can be chalked out only by reaching out to all the stakeholders including the youth who have to pay a huge price because of the uncertainties plaguing the State for the past more than six decades,” she said and added that alternatives shall also have to be found to existing crowd control methods to ensure that the youth don’t get killed or maimed in such situations.
“I am especially pained by the grievous eye injuries caused to some youth because of the pellets guns. This cruel method of crowd control will have to be done away with, sooner the better,” added Mehbooba.
She said the people of Jammu and Kashmir can’t live with the pain and suffering forever and tangible measures shall have to be taken to address their concerns and aspirations.
The CM expressed gratitude to the leaders of all the political parties for their presence in the meeting to deliberate over the prevailing situation.
The APM, however, was boycotted by State’s largest opposition party National Conference, which termed it a futile exercise.