Pain in Kashmir heart must be addressed: Mufti

J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday spoke about “pain in the heart of Kashmir”,  which needs to be addressed immediately by all so that the youth of the state also flourish and contribute to the growth of the nation.

In her first public rally after taking over as the first woman CM of J&K early this month, she spoke about the unrest in Muslim countries, including Pakistan, Syria and Libya. “In Pakistan, the government is fighting against its own people... Sunni kills Shia and vice versa,” she told the rally, after the inauguration of the Shri Vaishno Devi Narayana Superspecialty Hospital here.

“I am proud to live in a nation, where people from different religions live in peace and harmony, but there is a pain... There is a pain in heart of Kashmir and we all have to heal it together. We need to heal it so that the youth of Kashmir flourish like those in rest of the country,” she said.

Referring to the recent killings in Handwara, she expressed hope that under the leadership of the Prime Minister, her government would be able to restore peace in the state.

She recalled her conversation with her late father Mufti Mohammed Sayeed and said that when talks for alliance between the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were going on, he had told her, “I have held the hand of a person who has been made the Prime Minister of the country by crores of people.” 

“Modi ji, J&K is a mini-India and complete in itself,” she said, adding that when a turmoil erupted in Kashmir, Kashmiri Pandits came to Jammu and they were welcomed by people here,” she said.