No mercy for terrorists: BJP spells out new Kashmir policy

NEW DELHI: A day after BJP pulled the plug on its alliance with PDP in J&K , party general secretary Ram Madhav on Wednesday said that the saffron party will not show any "mercy" to terrorists.

"There will be no mercy for terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir," BJP's J&K in-charge Ram Madhav stated his party's policy for the state while speaking to a news channel.

The "no mercy" strategy for combating terrorism in the Valley came even as leaders of the two main political parties in J&K, PDP's Mehbooba Mufti and NC's Omar Abdullah, had objected to the government's pursual of a "muscular" approach to tackle terrorism in the state. "We had always said muscular security policy will not work in J&K, reconciliation is key," Mufti said yesterday in an address to the media following her resignation from the post of chief minister.

Abdullah too was apprehensive of Centre's aggressive posturing in J&K.

In reply to a tweet, Abdullah attributed the rise in violence in the last one year to the "muscular government" headed by the BJP-PDP alliance. "The failure of its policies is the joint failure of the PDP and the BJP. Neither one can absolve themselves of blame," he wrote.

Madhav was speaking a day after BJP announced that it will no longer be a part of the alliance leading to the collapse of the three-year-old government in the state.