Take CBMs before inviting separatists for talks: Mufti tells PM

Srinagar: Former chief minister and People’s Democratic Party patron, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed Saturday asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take certain confidence building measures before inviting both separatist and mainstream parties to a “round table conference in order to resolve the Kashmir issue.”

Addressing a party rally at Tourist Reception Centre here, Mufti Sayeed emphasized the need of creating a “conducive atmosphere”— by releasing political prisoners and youth, withdrawing Disturbed Areas Act, diluting Army’s special powers and reducing troop strength from civilian areas— for talks.

“After these measures the Prime Minister should convene a round table conference and invite both separatist and mainstream leaders to find a solution to the Kashmir issue. Most of these confidence building measures are the demands of separatist leaders, and if these demands are met by New Delhi the separatists would have no choice but to come onto the dialogue table,” he said.

Flaying the state government for “randomly arresting” youth and detaining separatist leaders in jails, Mufti said the National Conference led coalition was trying to “create an impression of something happening in June.”

“Under the false pretext of preventing violence in June, the government is arresting youth under Public Safety Act and shifting them to jails. You can jail people but not their ideas ,” he said.

Mufti also condemned the detention of separatist leaders in jails “ Let’s accept it that a large section of people here don’t accept Kashmir’s accession to India, but during our tenure we didn’t send anybody to jails,  but today they are sending  people to jails,” he said.

“An aged separatist leader, Mohammad Ashraf Sehrai, is languishing in a jail somewhere in Jharkand; Bar Association President Mian Qayoom is being held despite court orders to release him. Why?” he asked, claiming that during “ our tenure not a single (separatist) leader was behind the bars.”

He alleged that the National Conference had “surrendered” the state’s water resources  during Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah’s tenures, respectively. “ And the biggest jolt to state’s economic independence came with the handing over of Jammu and Kashmir Bank to the Reserve Bank of India during the NC-led government,” he said.

Mufti also assured the people of Pakistan that “ India and the people of Jammu and Kashmir would never want to turn that country into a desert despite losses suffered by the state due to the Indus Water Treaty between India and Pakistan.”