Ahead of all-party delegation’s J&K visit, Mehbooba wants dialogue with Hurriyat

The political leadership must, without any further delay, reach out to and engage all sections of society, including leaders of the Hurriyat Conference, in a productive dialogue process to resolve the issue and make peace a reality in J&K, she said while visiting the family of a person killed in firing by security forces.

Seventy people have been killed and thousands injured in violence in Kashmir Valley following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani in an encounter on July 8. “Visited the family of late Mashooq Ahmed, firing victim of Kund, Kulgam and offered heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family... The loss of human lives is a colossal tragedy and everyone should strive for peace in J&K,” she posted on Facebook. 

The CM said it is perhaps for the first time that the Kashmir issue has been, during the past two months, discussed in so many forums and at so many levels including Parliament and at all-party meetings where judicious views were put across by all shades of the country’s political opinion on how to end the stalemate. Congress, CPI(M) and many other parties pitched for holding dialogue with “all stakeholders”, including Hurriyat, to douse the unrest in Kashmir, at a meeting held by the government in New Delhi on Saturday to brief the MPs who are part of the 30-member delegation about the visit to the state on September 4-5. 

New Delhi: Use of chilli-filled grenades as an alternative to pellet guns, which will be used in rarest of rare cases, was cleared on Saturday by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh for crowd control ahead of the visit of an all-party delegation led by him to restive Kashmir on Sunday.