JAMMU: The frustrated youth in Kashmir are joining the ranks of militants and getting killed within days while those in Jammu are ruining their lives due to drug addiction, Apni Party president Altaf Bukhari said on Sunday and added the government's mishandling of the affairs of the union territory was leading to such a situation.
The former minister said his party will continue to raise the issues of public importance with the central government.
"The drug menace is growing and our youth are getting addicted. They were not using drugs in the past but why are they resorting to the use of drugs now. When the educated youth are not able to find job, they take drugs under frustration and it has spread to girls as well which is an issue of grave concern and debate," Bukhari told reporters in Kathua on the sidelines of a public rally.
He said the youth in Jammu do not get a gun here and are ruining their lives by taking drugs, while in the valley the frustrated youth are joining militancy and getting killed in encounters with security forces.
"They are joining militant ranks in the night and getting killed two days later. Are they really militants? I call them brainless youth," he said.
Bukhari said all the issues facing Jammu and Kashmir were the result of mishandling of its affairs by the government which has to address these issues to provide relief to the people.
"If I will not go to the prime minister with the issues of my people, then whom should I go to...the overall situation has worsened in J&K," he said.
He said Modi is not the prime minister of one community and "that is why we are meeting him and also lodging our complaints. We will continue to do so because we believe he is the prime minister of all the people of the country and so is Home Minister Amit Shah."
"We have to believe their words till they prove otherwise," he said.
On the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, he said everybody is upset as the unemployment rate has touched an all-time high of 22 per cent and every day the youth are on the streets to seek jobs while daily wagers are waiting for their regularisation and pending wages.
Responding to a question about allegations that the BJP is creating new political parties in Jammu and Kashmir to achieve its goal of forming the next government, he said these are just rumours.
"They are not forming any parties...they are in the central government does not mean we are because of them. Let there be hundreds of parties but at the end of the day, it is the people who will decide the fate of such parties," he said.
On the BJP's target of 50-plus seats in the next assembly elections to form the government, he said the BJP has been ruling Jammu and Kashmir since June 18, 2018 after the fall of the previous PDP-BJP government and its report card is before the people.
"What they have done for the last four years is before the public and they will get the votes accordingly. If they have not done well, they should be sent back to their homes and start learning how to serve the people," he said, adding they have failed the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
He called for early restoration of Jammu and Kashmir's statehood and holding of assembly elections to provide an opportunity to the people to choose their true representatives in a democratic way.