People of Kashmir are between two maximalist positions: Chidambaram

Blaming the Centre for the unrest in Jammu and Kashmir, senior Congress leader and former Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Sunday said the people of the valley are caught between the two maximalist positions.

"The people of the Kashmir Valley are caught between the two maximalist positions...The Central government has taken a maximalist position that has aggravated the problem. Just as the militants have taken a maximalist position that has to be rejected out of hand," Chidambaram tweeted.

"The casualties are the people of Jammu and Kashmir and the future of the state.

"On many occasions in the past, I had cautioned that the Kashmir issue or problem (or by whatever name it is called) was a festering wound," he added.

Chidambaram's tweets came a day after Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday to discuss the security situation in the valley in the wake of the Amarnath terror attack and said that "unfortunately China has also started interfering" in matters pertaining to the state.